
\<. 'jenS 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

■ : | 

| s^f am. I 

J # UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. I 



TEA; 



ITS EFFECTS, MEDICINAL 
AND MORAL. 



London : 

Printed by A. Spottiswocde, 

New-Street-Square. 



TEA; 

ITS EFFECTS, MEDICINAL 
AND MORAL. 



BY 



G. G. SIGMOND, M.D. F.S.A. F.L.S. 

PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA TO THE ROYAL 
MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 



LONDON: 

O 

PRINTED FOR 

LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, 

PATERNOSTER- ROW. 

1839. 




*$ 

£? 



<v 



£\ 



TO 



JAMES HUGHES ANDERDON, Esg. 

&c. &c. 



My dear Anderdon, 

To you I dedicate this little 
Volume, as a slight testimonial of the 
high estimation in which I hold you. 
Many years of intimate acquaintance have 
taught me to admire you for your love 
of all that is beautiful in art and excellent 
in science, and to respect you for the pos- 
session of those intellectual qualifications 



VI DEDICATION. 

which give to this existence its richest 
charm, and promise happiness in the life 
to come. 

Ever faithfully yours, 

G. G. SIGMOND, M.D. 



24. Dover Street, 
'June 26. 1839. 



PREFACE. 



It has long been the custom of the Royal 
Medico-Botanical Society to invite one of its 
Professors to deliver an Introductory Address 
at the opening of each session. The task, this 
year, devolved upon me. The recent discovery 
in British India of the Tea Plant, which reflects 
so much credit upon botanic science, appeared 
to me deserving the deepest attention ; the more 
so, because it had seemed to escape the notice 
of scientific men in England, whilst the Conti- 
nental botanists — amongst them Auguste De 
Candolle, " the distinguished son of a distin- 
guished father" — had considered it a subject of 
the highest importance. 

The paper I read met with the kindest re- 
ception ; and a note was recorded upon the 
minutes, which called upon me to make public 



Vlll PREFACE. 

the information I had collected. I found, that 
were I to print my observations in the form' in 
which they were delivered, they would not be 
acceptable to the public generally, for they were 
couched in the language usually employed in 
science, and they abounded in technical terms. 
I therefore resolved to give, in a popular form, 
that which would most probably be required by 
the general reader, — to condense it in a small 
volume, and to reserve for the Transactions 
of the Society those details which bear more 
immediately a scientific character. 



I 



TEA; 



MEDICINAL AND MORAL EFFECTS. 



Man is so surrounded by objects calculated to 
arrest his attention, and to excite either his admi- 
ration or his curiosity, that he often overlooks the 
humble friend that ministers to his habitual com- 
fort; and the familiarity he holds with it almost 
renders him incapable of appreciating its value. 
Amongst the endless variety of the vegetable pro- 
ductions which the bounteous hand of Nature has 
given to his use is that simple shrub, whose 
leaf supplies an agreeable beverage for his daily 
nourishment or for his solace ; but little does he 
estimate its real importance: he scarcely knows how 
materially it influences his moral, his physical, and 
his social condition : — individually and nationally 
we are deeply indebted to the tea-plant. There may 
be many vegetables, such as wheat, or barley, the 
potato, or the vine, from which more immediate 
sustenance may be derived, or they may, during 
their cultivation, give employment to large masses 
of people, but do they call into action the energies 
of nations, or do they give rise to the exertion of 

B 



2 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

so much intellectual power? Every circumstance 
connected with the growth, the cultivation, the 
preparation, and the exportation from its native 
soil, of the tea-leaf must awaken the most lively 
curiosity. The commerce which it creates is of 
the most exclusive character: it is the source of 
occupation of the people of two distant nations, 
strikingly distinguished from each other by their 
customs, their prejudices, their laws, and their re- 
ligion. It stimulates the one to agricultural in- 
dustry, the other to navigation and to manufactures. 
It compels them to an intercourse which, from the 
dissimilarity of their tastes, their feelings, and their 
opinions, they would not otherwise have tolerated. 
If, too, it is the cause of the distribution of riches 
amongst individuals, it likewise affords, by the 
taxes that are raised from it, large revenues to the 
respective governments, and enables them either to 
support the burden of expensive wars,, or to maintain 
their dignity abroad and their tranquillity at home. 

A curious, and not an uninstructive, work might 
be written upon the singular benefits which have 
accrued to this country from the preference we 
have given to the beverage obtained from the tea- 
plant, above all those that might be derived from 
the rich treasures of the vegetable kingdom. It 
would prove that our national importance has been 
ntimately connected with it, and that much of our 
present greatness, and even the happiness of our 
social system, springs from this unsuspected source. 
It would show us that our mighty empire in the 
East, that our maritime superiority, and that our 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 3 

progressive advancement in the arts and the 
sciences have materially depended upon it. Great, 
indeed, are the blessings which have been diffused 
amongst immense masses of mankind by the cul- 
tivation of a shrub, whose delicate leaf, passing 
through a variety of hands, forms an incentive to 
industry, contributes to health, to national riches, 
and to domestic happiness. The social tea-table is 
like the fireside of our country, a national delight ; 
and, if it be the scene of domestic converse and of 
agreeable relaxation, it should likewise bid us re- 
member that every thing connected with the growth 
and preparation of this favourite herb should awaken 
a higher feeling — that of admiration, love, and grati- 
tude to Him "who saw every thing that he had made, 
and behold it was very good." 

At the present moment every circumstance 
which relates to the tea-plant carries with it a 
deeper interest. A discovery has been made of no 
less importance than that the hand of Nature 
has planted the shrub within the bounds of the 
wide dominion of Great Britain : a discovery which 
must materially influence the destinies of nations ; it 
must change the employment of a vast number of 
individuals ; it must divert the tide of commerce, and 
awaken to agricultural industry the dormant ener- 
gies of a mighty country, whose wellbeing must be 
the great aim of a paternal government. In a 
scientific as well as in a commercial point of view, 
the value of the inquiries that must follow upon 
this important discovery can scarcely be yet esti- 
mated. A close investigation, and a diligent research 
b 2 



4< TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

must elicit many facts relating to the produce of 
considerable regions of the East, in which, doubt- 
less, exist abundant materials, both known and 
unknown, for the uses of man : they may diffuse 
still greater blessings over the human race than 
those that are now enjoyed. The resources of a 
magnificent empire are yet to be developed. India 
has, within her bosom, the richest vegetable and 
mineral treasures, which are to be given to the rest 
of the world, to unite together in closer bonds of 
harmony two great nations, the one capable, by the 
energies of her people, of governing; the other, by 
her climate, evidently destined to be the not un- 
willing vassal of foreigners ; for such has been her 
lot from the earliest records of mankind ; and to 
possess her wealthy domain has been, and will be, 
the ambition of the conquerors of the world. 

Another great inducement to examine this inter- 
esting subject arises out of the prevailing dispo- 
sition which now exists to substitute the infusion 
of the tea-leaf for the fermented and distilled 
liquors which have been, from the earliest records 
we possess, both sacred and profane, the accustomed 
drink of all the nations of the earth. It is a most 
remarkable event in the annals of man, that there 
should be a systematic organisation of large bodies 
under the name of Temperance Societies, having 
the strength of moral union, and guided by the 
opinions of many reflecting persons, who have 
pledged themselves to abandon all fermented 
liquids, and to confine themselves to tea. By such 
an organisation alone can these principles be car- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 5 

ried into action ; for the custom of a country bears 
with it such a despotic sway that it is almost next 
to an impossibility to eradicate it, even when bor- 
dering upon the absurd or mischievous. Public 
opinion only can act upon it ; and the proselytes 
daily made seem to prove that this mighty engine 
is now most actively at work. That dram- drinking 
is the pernicious source of poverty and sorrow 
there can be no doubt ; but the question may be 
fairly asked, and duly considered, whether the glass 
of generous wine, or strengthening beer, is to be 
totally abandoned, without an examination of the 
circumstances which may render a moderate enjoy- 
ment either prudent or necessary ? Must man rush 
from one extreme to the other? Do not temperature, 
climate, age, demand some investigation before the 
denunciation of all fermented liquors be counte- 
nanced ; and will not even the lover of tea acknow- 
ledge his susceptibility of the pleasure and of the 
utility of his favourite beverage to be heightened 
by a moderate indulgence in Nature's other gifts ? 
Does not our knowledge of the condition of the in- 
habitants of other countries teach us, that the same 
fluid, which only causes a slight acceleration of the 
circulation of the blood of the Scotchman or of the 
Swede, would drive an Italian or a Spaniard mad ? 
A German, says Montesquieu, drinks through 
custom, founded upon constitutional necessity ; a 
Spaniard drinks from choice, or out of the mere 
wantonness of luxury. An amiable enthusiast, the 
excellent Archdeacon of Bombay, has written a 
quaint little volume, entitled, " Charges against 
b 3 



6 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

custom and public opinion, for the following high 
crimes and misdemeanors : — for having stolen away 
the senses of mankind, and on sundry occasions 
driven the world mad ; for their outrageous appetite 
in having eaten up the understanding and the con- 
science ; and for having feloniously turned the heart 
to stone." He exclaims, " Bacchus, astride of the 
spirit cask, is the very evil genius of desolation and 
wretchedness, poverty, disease, and crime ; and to 
have anything to do with his horrid cask, to buy 
any of it, or to sell any of it, or in any way to lend 
the respectability of our name in the consumption 
of it, is downright insanity." 

The moralist and the philosopher may be led to 
acquiesce in the leading doctrines which these so- 
cieties have laid down, and they may hail with 
satisfaction the dawn of a new and excellent prin- 
ciple, which may serve to counterbalance the fear- 
ful calamities inflicted upon the community by 
the debasing influence of habitual intoxication. 
They may naturally applaud the labours of those 
who are inculcating opinions which promise to 
substitute domestic tranquillity for the fierce brawl- 
ings of the alehouse ; the sober and steady habits 
which lead to virtue for the reckless dissipation 
which terminates in vice, in infamy, and in disease. 
It is, however, for the physician to give the ener- 
gies of his mind to examine whether the health of 
the community will suffer by the sudden change 
of long-established habits, whether the proposed 
reform carry with it no injurious effects upon the 
constitution of the inhabitants of the country. 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 7 

Having weighed well all the arguments which the 
advocates of the new system urge, and comparing 
them with facts already established, it is his duty to 
place his own opinion before the public, who, guided 
by that greatest blessing of intellect, common 
sense, will either be led by him, or will follow the 
dictates of their own judgment. With such excite- 
ments to examine into the nature and artificial pre- 
parations of Tea, it will not be considered an 
intrusion upon the time and the occupation of the 
intellectual part of the community, if there be placed 
before them a brief detail of the most important 
facts that have been from time to time made known ; 
and if there be taken a condensed view of all the 
bearings cf a subject which, if judiciously inquired 
into, may fairly blend amusement, instruction, and 
utility. 

Alike, the historical, the botanical, and the medi- 
cal questions that are involved demand a knowledge 
of these varied branches of science ; but it is not 
necessary that minutiae should be entered into in a 
volume which is destined for popular inquirers ; 
more particularly as these have been discussed be- 
fore by the learned in other shapes, and have been 
fairly examined : that, however, which is necessary 
to be known may be given in the simplest language 
and unencumbered by technical terms. 

For a number of centuries the character, the 
manners, the customs, and the institutions of the 
Chinese, from whom alone could be gathered any 
information upon the subject of the tea-plant, were 
veiled in the deepest obscurity. They were rather 
b 4< 



8 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

matters of curious speculation than of certain know- 
ledge. This people had managed to conceal their 
actual state of civilisation, and had shrouded in a 
mystery almost impenetrable their progress in the 
arts and sciences. The little that had been gleaned 
led to the conclusion, which is now proved to be 
correct, that they had arrived at a certain state of 
civilisation before other nations had emerged from 
barbarism, but beyond that they were fearful of 
advancing ; and that they held that all innovations 
were to be dreaded. Those who have witnessed the 
ruin and decay of the mightiest empires, who have 
seen the revolutions, so fatal to the happiness of 
society, that have followed upon the introduction 
of the wealth arising out of the productions of art ; 
who have seen luxury and dissipation amongst the 
wealthy, poverty and misery amongst the poor, 
consequent upon the accumulation of riches by the 
few, have applauded this dread of novelty, and 
pointed to the stability of the Chinese empire, amongst 
the wreck of nations, as a proof of the necessity 
of avoiding a constant love of advancement. The 
government assiduously instilled into the minds of 
their subjects this doctrine, and likewise inculcated 
an hostility to any communication with strangers, 
from whom they imagined more was to be dreaded 
than gained. The prohibition to intercourse with 
otlier nations was, however, gradually relaxed, but 
only in favour of the purchasers of an article of 
commerce, which excited industry amongst the 
people, which had become a necessary of life to 
foreigners, and therefore was to be viewed with 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 9 

some share of indulgence. From these circum- 
stances, the difficulty of arriving at any decisive 
knowledge of the nature of the tea-plant pre- 
cluded the inquiries which scientific persons were 
anxious to make. A slight information only could 
be gleaned, either from a few missionaries, whose 
minds were directed to higher thoughts, or from a 
few individuals attached to diplomatic missions, 
who, however capable or anxious of arriving at in- 
formation, were too much harassed by constant dis- 
cussions and personal fatigue to gather the facts 
required. The merchants were too much engaged 
in commercial speculations, and had neither time 
nor, probably, the inclination to devote their atten- 
tion to points which did not immediately promote 
their own views. The government of this country 
could render no assistance : they were compelled 
to make great sacrifices to the prejudices and to 
the laws of the Chinese, in order that they might 
maintain an equivocal intercourse which was held 
by so uncertain a tenure. The scanty materials, 
however, that were furnished were collected by 
some of the most learned men. Amongst these, 
Cornelius Bontekoe, Linnaeus, and Dr. Lettsom 
must be enumerated as the most distinguished. 

So many of the obstacles which stood in the way 
of acquiring some knowledge of the people of 
China having been removed, we cannot fail to be 
struck with the singular features that have been 
presented to our view. We find them to be indus- 
trious, polite in their manners, courteous to each 
other ; and that their whole system of public as well 



10 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

as private life is dependent upon one great tie of 
nature — that which binds the son to the parent : 
alike their morality and their religion are based 
upon this principle. To support the aged father is 
the great incentive to the acquisition of wealth, 
and to the cultivation of their intellectual and 
physical powers. Their country is the most fertile 
of all the Asiatic regions : its geography and its 
productions are now sufficiently familiar to us ; and 
we can appreciate the industry which has converted 
such varied soils into sources of riches. 

The Chinese have followed, it would appear, 
from the earliest annals of the empire, agriculture, 
with zeal, with assiduity, ingenuity, and unwearied 
attention. They are admirably adapted to carry 
this branch of industry to perfection, for they are 
remarkable for their strength, and for their capa- 
bility of encountering fatigue. They are charac- 
terised by a superiority over all the nations by 
whom they are surrounded, no less as to their mental 
than to their physical powers. Europeans living 
amongst Asiatic nations have been particularly 
struck with this fact. Amongst the valuable mass of 
evidence delivered before a committee of the House 
of Commons, in the year 1830, relating to the tea- 
trade, and other articles of our Indian commerce, 
Mr. Crawfurdj a gentleman who enjoyed consider- 
able opportunities of ascertaining the truth, from 
his residence for several years in the Bengal Presi- 
dency, in Calcutta, in Penang, in Java, in Siam, 
in Cochin China, and in the Burmese territory, 
stated, that a Chinese is at least two inches taller 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 11 

than a Siamese, and by three inches taller than a 
Cochin Chinese, a Malay, or a Javanese, and that 
his frame is proportionally stronger and well-built. 
His superiority in personal skill, in dexterity, 
and ingenuity, are still more striking. They have 
brought the art of cultivation of their land to 
the highest state of perfection ; they have taken 
every advantage of soil and of climate ; and have, 
by their perseverance, rendered the immense portion 
of the globe which they inhabit highly productive, 
and necessarily important to other nations. Dr. 
Abel, who accompanied the first embassy, has given 
us a general idea of the appearance of the provinces 
through which he passed. He has told us that 
they abounded in proofs of the most determined 
perseverance and labour. On every side he saw ? 
cultivated with the greatest care, the plants which 
are most necessary for the uses of man, such as 
wheat, rice, barley, beans, peas, potatoes, and the 
white turnip ; he likewise observed that the cotton, 
the sugar-cane, the mulberry, were objects of in- 
cessant attention ; he was struck with the growth 
of the camellia oleifera (the oil-bearing tea-plant), 
the croton sebiferum (the tallow-tree), the laurus 
camphora (the camphor laurel), and many other of 
those plants which yield to domestic economy or 
to medicine products of inestimable value. It has 
been observed, by a high authority, that " a China- 
man keeps his field in better order than his house." 
His implements are formed with ingenuity, and are 
admirably adapted to fulfil the purposes for which 
they were invented: he wields them with a due 



12 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

knowledge of their power, and of the skill ne- 
cessary to render them subservient to the muscu- 
lar strength of man. With the plough, with the 
harrow, the brake, the hoe, and the roller, he is 
familiar : they are not of that rude construction 
which belongs to the infancy of agriculture, at the 
same time they are of the simplest structure, and 
formed of the most durable materials. He excels 
almost all nations in the process of manuring land ; 
his mode of irrigation is admirable ; the conveyance 
of water by canals and aqueducts perfect. He has 
carried his knowledge of machinery to so great 
a height that he throws volumes of water to any 
part of his farm. He takes especial care that every 
acre shall be rendered productive. In the different 
provinces, vegetable bodies best suited to them are 
cultivated ; for the variety of soil, of climate, and 
of atmosphere, has been duly watched, and every 
advantage taken of the knowledge that has been 
gained through a long series of centuries. To 
a people thus acquainted with the principles and 
the practice of husbandry, the rearing the tree, 
and the bringing it to a state of the utmost per- 
fection, would neither be a matter of neglect 
nor of difficulty. Attached themselves to the infu- 
sion furnished by the leaves, they appear, from a 
very early period, to have devoted considerable 
attention to the points connected with it* The 
origin of its employment as a beverage amongst 
them is wrapped in the obscurity which generally 
belongs to ancient usages ; and a fabulous tale is nar- 
rated, as to its introduction, which has had credence 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 13 

even amongst the better informed inhabitants of the 
empire ; whilst, as is usual with fables, it has been 
imagined to have some allegorical allusion, which, 
if explained, would satisfy the lover of antiquarian 
lore. The tale is thus related by one of the com- 
pilers of a history of China : — 

Darma, a very religious prince, and third son 
of an Indian king, named Kosjusvo, is said to have 
landed in China, in the year 510 of the Christian 
era. He employed all his care and thought to 
diffuse throughout the country a knowledge of God 
and religion ; and, being desirous to excite men by 
his example, imposed on himself privations and 
mortifications of every kind ; living in the open air, 
and devoting the days and nights to prayer and 
contemplation. After several years, however, being 
worn out with fatigue, he fell asleep against his 
will ; and that he might faithfully observe his oath, 
which he thought he had violated, he cut off his 
eyelids, and threw them on the ground. Next day, 
having returned to the same spot, he found them 
changed into a shrub which the earth had never 
before produced. Having eaten some of the leaves 
of it, he found his spirits exhilarated, and his former 
vigour restored. He recommended this aliment to 
his disciples and followers. The reputation of tea 
increased, and after that time it continued to be 
generally used. Kaempfer, in his Amcenitates Ex- 
otica, gives the life with a portrait of this saint, 
so celebrated in China and Japan. There is seen 
at the feet of Darma a reed, which indicates that 
he had traversed the seas and rivers. 



14 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

Certain it is, that European travellers, who, at the 
commencement of the revival of knowledge, found 
their way into the empire which the inhabitants 
called celestial, speak of the Chiai Catai as a uni- 
versal favourite ; and the custom of sipping it has 
evidently been handed down from generation to 
generation, until it has become indispensably neces- 
sary to the rich, and a great desideratum to the 
4>oor. At this day the consumption of tea in a 
Chinese family must be very great: it would appear 
that throughout the whole of the day they take 
advantage of an apparatus in which it is kept, and 
are constantly sipping it. There exists in the lan- 
guage numerous proverbs which tend to show that 
the rich enjoy the strongest, whilst the poor must 
be contented with that which is weak. Mr. Davis 
observed, in the very interesting evidence which 
he gave before the House of Commons, that their 
figurative expression for poverty is drawn from this 
source. It is weak tea, and insipid rice, in allusion 
to the want of means to obtain a strong tea, and 
wherewithal to flavour their rice. The tea-plant 
is evidently indigenous in many of the provinces of 
China, and in various situations serves in the fields 
as a hedge-shrub ; but there are particular localities 
in which neither labour, skill, nor ingenuity are 
spared to bring it to the state of the highest per- 
fection of which it is capable. It exists, indeed, in 
different parts of the Eastern hemisphere, but it is 
only in China that it has been extensively culti- 
vated ; for, although the Javanese assert that they 
have within the limits of their empire a shrub which 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 15 

is far superior to that which is found in China, we 
have no evidence of the fact, nor has any exporta- 
tion been made of that of which they have so loudly 
boasted. The plant evidently flourishes over the 
greater portion of the Chinese empire; and there 
must be varieties produced by, cultivation, which 
are not known in Europe, but which are said to be 
in high estimation amongst those people who can 
afford to purchase them. That which is best known 
to the European, and which, indeed, seems grown 
and prepared for the supply of our markets, is the 
produce of the central and the maritime provinces 
of China, forming the richest and finest portions of 
the empire. From these, too, the most valued pro- 
ductions, and the more highly esteemed manufac- 
tures of various articles of dress and of luxury, are 
obtained. The demand for exportation has neces- 
sarily increased its cultivation ; and it is now suc- 
cessfully reared in many situations where it was 
formerly unknown, or entirely neglected. The 
provinces of Fokien, of Keang-nan, of Chek-eang, 
of Kiang-si, and Kung-soo yield the largest pro- 
portion ; and the English resident is led to believe 
that from them the best supply is obtained; but 
the provinces immediately around Pekin afford that 
which is preferred by the luxurious citizen ; and, 
from those which border upon the Tartarian region, 
the Russian and the Muscovite draw their supplies, 
which are of a kind and of a character which are 
much to be prized by the amateur of tea. 

It is in Fokien, or in " the happy establishment," 
that a very large proportion of that tea which is the 



16 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

ordinary beverage of the tea-drinkers of this country 
is grown. The shrub here acquires great luxuriance ; 
is diligently watched over ; its farmyards, its drying 
establishments, are on a scale of great magnitude ; 
and it furnishes us with a sound black tea, of suffi- 
cient aroma, strength, and taste to gratify the palate. 
This province is described as highly picturesque : 
it is separated from the rest of the empire by a 
chain of mountains, surrounding it on every side 
towards the land, whilst rugged cliffs, which gra- 
dually diminish in height, gently undulate towards 
the sea. Although the elevations are considerable, 
yet admirable localities are furnished for the tea- 
plant amongst numerous fertile valleys and lux- 
uriant plains, from which it gradually spreads up 
almost to the summit of the loftiest range of hills. 
In the district of this province, which is called 
Keen-nung-foo, are situated some tea- farms, which 
have acquired considerable celebrity ; for the pro- 
duce of the Woo-e-shan mountains is eagerly pur- 
chased. It is, however, attended with considerable 
expense ; for, from the absence of beasts of burden, 
of wheel carriages, or of tolerable roads, each year's 
growth must be transported on the shoulders of 
porters over the intervening mountains. Each chest 
of tea is carried on a man's back. Although, from 
this district, eighteen miles are only to be traversed 
to reach Kwang-tun or Canton, yet sometimes the 
farms are situated three hundred miles from this 
great depository, and, as many mountain passes, 
rivers, creeks, and canals, intervene, the transport- 
ation may require weeks, nay, months. The general 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 17 

vegetation of the province of Fokien is by no means 
luxuriant, for the soil is poor ; still the industry of 
its inhabitants has led them to the successful cul- 
tivation of some of the more highly prized fruits. 
The natural growth of the province is not parti- 
cularly striking, and even the tea-plant district is 
confined to a very limited range ; the farmer gener- 
ally asserting that the good black tea grows only 
within a circumference of about thirty miles, and 
that all which is found beyond it is of an inferior 
character. They prefer the produce of the sides 
of the hills ; and, although it is the custom of the 
country to plant both hill and vale, the preference 
is given to that which is brought from elevations. 
Keang-nan, which has been of late divided into two 
provinces, is represented as one of the most favoured 
spots on the face of the earth. It is asserted that 
the natives of this part of China are remarkable for 
excelling all their countrymen, not only in agricul- 
ture, in manufacture, but likewise in literature and 
accomplishments, and that there is an evident su- 
periority in every thing that springs from it. This 
important province consists of an immense plain, 
interspersed by a few hilly ridges : one of the 
noblest rivers of the old world, Yang-tse, flows 
through it. It is here that one of the most delicate 
and highly prized of the green teas, the Song-lo, is 
cultivated and prepared. Che-keang is likewise a 
province of much agricultural industry, and a nur- 
sery for the tea-plant. Keang-se and Keang-soo 
are both remarked for their salubrity, for their 
valuable productions ; and amongst the chief em- 
c 

9 



18 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

ployments of the people is the rearing and drying 
the leaves of the shrub. 

It would appear that, notwithstanding all the 
labour and skill that may be employed, there are 
many situations in which the tea-plant, though 
its natural hardihood is great, vegetates produc- 
ing flowers and seeds, but does not yield leaves 
fit for the uses to which they are generally ap- 
plied : hence, great attention is at all times de- 
manded, and judgment in the selection of a 
spot fully adapted to the development of its higher 
qualities. This does not altogether depend upon 
temperature or range of climate, for it has been 
observed that the winter of China is much more 
severe than that which occurs under corresponding 
latitudes in Europe. De Guignes has remarked 
that the heat or cold is dependent on the di- 
rection of the winds. Cold is predominant during 
the months of October, November, December, Jan- 
uary, February, and March, whilst the wind during 
the greater proportion of that time is either north 
or north-east. In April and May the prevailing 
wind is south-easterly, in June and July south and 
south-westerly, and it returns south by east by Au- 
gust and September. Dr. Falconer has drawn as a 
conclusion,, from a consideration of the different tea 
localities, that the tea is produced over an extent of 
country where the mean annual temperature ranges 
from 73° to 54° 5' of Fahrenheit ; where the heat of 
summer does not descend below 80°, and the cold 
of winter ranges from 54?° to 56° ; where the differ- 
ence between summer and winter heat is on the 
northern limit 59°, and on the southern 30° : that 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 19 

it is cultivated in the highest perfection where the 
mean annual heat ranges from 54° to 64°. That 
rain falls in all the months of the year, and that the 
moisture of the climate is on the whole moderate. 
These remarks will apply to Japan, in some parts of 
which excellent teas are produced. It is universally 
admitted that the tea-plant thrives best in an open 
exposure to the south. 

Dr. Abel has given a very good account of 
the soil, and the geological structure of the tea 
localities, drawn from his own personal observ- 
ations, which are thoroughly borne out by all 
that has been made known to us since he ac- 
companied Lord Amherst on his embassy. The 
shrub succeeds best on the sides of mountains, 
where there can be little accumulation of mould, 
and in a gravelly soil, formed either from disinte- 
grated sandstone or by the debris of the rocks, con- 
sisting chiefly of sandstone, schistus, and granite. 
Le Comte states that the best tea is produced in a 
gravelly soil, the next best in a light or sandy soil, 
and the inferior in a yellow soil. 

Sir George Staunton thus describes the ap- 
pearance of the tea-tree, as it was seen by 
Lord Macartney's embassy, for the first and only 
time, on its return from Pekin, on the river Chen- 
taun-kiang, in the latitude 29° 30" N., "On the 
sides and tops of earthern embankments, di* 
viding the garden-grounds and groves of oranges, 
the tea-plant was for the first time seen growing like 
a common shrub, scattered carelessly about/' Mr. 
Barrow speaks of the same spot : — " We had thus 
c 2 



20 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

far passed through the country without having seen 
a single plant of the tea-shrub ; but here we found 
it used as a common plant for hedge-rows, to divide 
the gardens and fruit groves, but not particularly 
cultivated for its leaves." 

The tea-plant is a beautiful shrub, bearing some 
resemblance to the myrtle : it bears a yellow flower, 
which is exceedingly fragrant. Its similarity to the 
camellia in its general appearance, in the shape of 
its leaf, in the formation of its floral developments, 
had struck the common observer, and it was re- 
marked that the Camellia Oleifera bore so strong a 
resemblance, that even the practised eye had great 
difficulty in distinguishing one from the other when 
out of flower. A question has been agitated amongst 
botanists whether the thea be not a camellia. 

Dr. Wallich considers the two genera differ 
widely from each other, and that this is marked 
by the formation of their respective fruits, in both 
of which it is a roundish, more or less triangular, 
dry capsule, of three distinct cells, containing one 
solitary seed or nut ; and it bursts at the time of its 
full maturity vertically, by means of three fissures 
extending from the top of its capsule towards the 
base ; but this bursting, or, as it is botanically termed, 
dehiscence, takes place differently in the two cap- 
sules. In the tea, it proceeds along the middle of 
the lobes or angles, thus six valves are formed, each 
lobe splitting into two hemispherical valves. In the 
camellia, it bursts along the middle of each side, 
consequently, alternating with the corners into three 
very distinct valves. The general outline of the 
capsule of the tea is triangular, divided into three 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 21 

globular lobes ; whilst the camellia is very obscurely 
triangular, without any tendency to become deeply 
three lobed. Mr. Griffith, in his admirable report 
of the tea-plant of Upper Assam, has discussed very 
ably this opinion of the great botanist, Dr. Wallich, 
with whom he does not agree. He expresses his 
opinion that, from examination of the Assamese 
tea-plant, and of two species of camellia from the 
Khasiya hills, that there is no difference between 
thea and camellia, and he has given some drawings 
which show the perfect identity of the two plants. 
He is borne out by the opinion of several European 
botanists, whose authority is quoted by Sir William 
Hooker, in his account of the tea-plant in the Bo* 
tanical Magazine. Under any circumstances the 
distinguishing marks must be acknowledged to con- 
stitute rather a specific than a generic difference. 

Few questions have been more agitated, and less 
satisfactorily solved, than whether there be two 
species of thea, from the one of which is exclusively 
obtained the green tea, and from the other the black, 
or whether there be not many varieties, from which, 
according to the mode of preparation, either of 
the teas may be obtained. To the latter opinion, 
after much examination, I am inclined to yield. 
The words of Dr. Lettsom were long considered 
the authority to which deference was to be paid : — 
" There is only one species of this plant ; the differ- 
ence of green and Bohea tea depending upon the 
nature of the soil, the culture and manner of drying 
the leaves. It has even been observed that a green 
tea-tree, planted in the Bohea country, will produce 
c 3 



22 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

Bohea tea, and so the contrary;" and he further 
adds, " I have examined several hundred flowers, 
both from the Bohea and green tea countries, and 
their botanical characters have always appeared 
uniform." 

This opinion has been supported by many sys- 
tematic botanists, although several (at the head of 
whom is to be placed Linnaeus) considered that the 
teas were produced by two distinct species. Most 
of those who have resided in China believe that 
there is but one shrub, which is the exclusive source 
of all the varieties and shades of the tea of com- 
merce. Mr. Pigou states that the Chinese all agree 
that there is but one sort or species of the tea-tree, 
and that the difference in tea arises from soil and 
manner of curing. Mr. Marjoribank observes, that 
the tea-plants of all the provinces are supposed to 
be of one species, the difference in the manufac- 
tured article arising from difference of soil, climate, 
and manufacture. Green tea has been made in 
the districts from whence the black tea comes, and 
vice versa. 

Mr. Crawfurd says,- — " The tea is known to be bo- 
tanically one species ; so is the vine, which furnishes 
almost a complete parallel ; and I believe every 
distinction between black and green tea to be owing 
to climate, soil, and cultivation." Mr. Reeve, on the 
other hand, whose long residence in China, and 
whose scientific acquirements obtain for his opinion 
the highest respect, stated, before the Committee of 
the House of Commons, that his conclusion was 
that the green tea was not made from the same 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 23 

plant as the Bohea ; but that there were two distinct 
varieties, if not two distinct species. 

Chowqua, a Chinaman, who had been eight times 
in the Bohea country, and who had remained there 
from four to six months on each occasion, is often 
quoted, as having said that Bohea may be cured as 
Hyson, and Hyson as Bohea, and so of all sorts ; but 
that experience has shown that teas are cured as 
best suit the qualities they have from the soils 
where they grow ; so that Bohea will make bad 
Hyson, and Hyson, though very dear in the country 
where it grows, bad Bohea : however, in the pro- 
vince of Fokien, which may be called the Bohea 
province, tea has, for some few years, been made 
there after the Hyson manner, which has been sold at 
Canton as such. After such conflicting opinions, it 
must be acknowledged that it can only be by patient 
and careful examination of the plant, under all the 
circumstances of its cultivation, that we can clear 
up the doubts ; and, until some scientific botanist 
shall have had opportunities of witnessing on 
the spot the modifications produced by culture 
and soil, we must consider, adhuc sub judice 
lis. The plant is an evergreen, growing to the 
height of five or six feet: if left to itself it 
would grow to thirty feet ; but this very seldom 
occurs. Dr. Lettsom has the following note : — 
u Authors widely differ respecting the size of this 
tree. Le Comte says it grows of various sizes, from 
two feet to two hundred, and sometimes so thick 
that two men can scarcely grasp the trunk in their 
arms." The description, however, given by Le 
c 4< 



24« TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

Comte, of what he himself saw in the province of 
Fokien, is very different. He thus speaks : — " En- 
tering upon the province of Fokien, they first made 
me observe ihea upon the declining of a little hill. 
It was not above five or six feet high: several stalk3, 
each of which was an inch thick, joined together 
and divided at the top into many small branches, 
composed a kind of cluster, somewhat like our myrtle. 
The trunk, though seemingly dry, yet bore very green 
branches and leaves. These leaves are drawn out in 
length at the point, pretty straight, an inch or an 
inch and a half long, and indented in their whole 
circumference. The oldest seemed somewhat white 
without : they were hard, brittle, and bitter. The 
new ones, on the contrary, were soft, pliable, red- 
dish, smooth, transparent, and pretty sweet to the 
taste, especially after they had been a little chewed." 
The bark of the tree is of a chesnut colour toward 
the top, and below somewhat of the ash colour; 
the extremities of the twigs are greenish, the 
branches are numerous, irregular, slender, and of 
different sizes ; the leaves have their lamina smooth, 
very glossy, the upper surface rising in several 
places in roundish swellings, hollow underneath, 
veined, of a firm texture : they are alternate, ellip- 
tical, obtusely serrate, with the edges between the 
teeth recurved. Lettsom observes that the apex 
is emarginate, and that no author has remarked 
this obvious circumstance. Even Kaempfer himself 
says, " that the leaves terminate in a sharp point." 
They have a footstalk, which is very short, round 
on the under side, on the upper side flattish, and 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 25 

slightly channelled. They are like those of the 
Morella cherry-tree in shape, colour, and size, when 
full grown. A very striking difference was percept- 
ible in the colour, shape, glossy appearance, and 
size of the two plants, designated black and 
green, which were placed before the Medico-Bo- 
tanical Society by Mr. Loddige. The branches 
contain a great number of flowers, which bear 
a very strong resemblance to the wild rose. The 
number of petals vary much, and by no means 
bear out the idea of Linnaeus and of Sir John Hill, 
who, in making two distinct species, say that the 
Bohea flower has six petals, and the green nine 
petals. 

The agriculturist, who thoroughly knows 

" Quid quasque ferat regio, et quid quaeque recuset," 

takes care to plant his farm for the growth of tea 
on the side of a hill, or in a valley sufficiently wide 
for the due circulation of the atmospheric air, and 
the collection of the rays of light. His attention is 
generally repaid by the abundance of his crops. He 
carefully selects, too, a locality remarkable for the 
fertility of the soil. Both Barrow and Ellis speak 
of the luxuriance of vegetation in the neighbour- 
hood of the spots in which the farms were seen. 
Barrow says, " There was no want of trees, among 
which the most common were the tallow- tree and 
the camphor, cedar, firs, and the tall and majestic 
Arbor Vitcs. Groves of oranges, citrons, and lemons, 
were abundantly interspersed in the little vales that 



26 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

sloped down to the brink of the river." Ellis, in 
his account of the ascent to the summit of the 
mountains between Ta-long and Ta-ling-shien, 
tells us. " The route led through a valley where we 
for the first time saw the tea-plant. It is a beau- 
tiful shrub, resembling a myrtle, with a yellow 
flower, extremely fragrant. The plantations here 
were not of any extent, and were either surrounded 
by small fields of other cultivation, or placed in 
detached spots. We also saw the ginger in small 
patches." About three days after he observed it in 
the island of Woo-sha-kya, where the embassy was 
detained, in consequence of the wind being too 
strong for the continuance of the navigation. The 
day was passed in walking round the island, the 
greater part of which was cultivated with rice, 
wheat, and vegetables. The cultivation on the 
opposite bank was cotton, buck-wheat, and beans. 
One plantation of tea was met with in full flower." 
The places that produce fine teas are, like the spots 
which grow fine wines,, extremely limited : those 
producing coarse teas are widely spread. The 
proprietor of the tea-farm must not only under- 
stand agriculture, but he must likewise be ac- 
quainted with the laws that govern vegetable life : 
he must know the precise moment at which the 
leaves are imbued with their richest juice; he 
must judge when they are to be gathered for 
the delicacy of their flavour, and when for that 
coarser taste which suits the various palates of his 
customers. In picking he must be very careful, 
lest he injure the crop in the early spring, and thus 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 27 

prevent the development of the second and third 
gatherings, which, though not of equal value, are of 
much importance to him. He must likewise be 
aware of the adjustment of the heat necessary 
for the drying and curing the leaves ; upon which, 
probably, quite as much depends as upon the state 
of maturity to which the leaves have arrived. 
These minutiae, which to the superficial observer 
appear but of little moment, are of the greatest 
consequence. 

Those who have paid the slightest attention to the 
collection and the preparation of leaves employed 
for medicinal purposes, will be aware of the great 
nicety, and the extreme carefulness, requisite for 
the preservation of the innate virtues of plants. 
Some of these are only to be gathered on a dry 
and sunny day, as soon as the dew is off; for 
should the slightest portion of moisture remain upon 
them, after they have ceased to be connected with 
the parent stem, they become perfectly inert. A 
particle of fluid upon digitalis or foxglove, one of 
the most powerful indigenous remedies we possess, 
and which reduces rapidly the action of the heart, 
may totally destroy its activity. The deadly aconite, 
belladonna, henbane, will be useless if they be not 
dried in a room from which the smallest ray of light 
is excluded. Hemlock loses, too, its subtle and 
powerful aroma. However trifling the vast number 
of manipulations and the endless processes of drying 
may appear, they are of great importance, especially 
where the operations are carried on on a large 
scale. It is only by a practical knowledge of the 



28 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

delicacy of vegetable matter, of the evanescence of 
its aroma, of the rapidity with which its compo- 
nent parts enter into new changes, so that fresh 
principles are developed, that we can form an 
estimate of the experience and the judgment re- 
quired in the simplest treatment of leaves for their 
varied purposes. 

At the proper period for the commencement of 
plantation, the ground is dressed with great care, 
most probably according to the custom of each 
particular cultivator, as we find to be the case with 
other plants useful to man. Any number of seeds 
suitable to the soil, not usually less than six or more 
than sixteen, contained in their capsules, are put 
into a hole four or five inches in the ground, at 
certain distances from each other : they are then 
allowed to vegetate, by some, without any other 
care ; by others, the greatest attention is paid to the 
removal of weeds, the manuring of the land, and 
occasionally watering. When the shrub has grown 
about three years, the leaves are ready for picking. 
This is done with the greatest care : they are not 
plucked by handsful, but each leaf separately. 
They are thus, although the process be somewhat 
tedious, enabled to collect, in the course of the day, 
fifteen pounds. The following account has been 
given of a tea- farm which supplies the imperial fa- 
mily with imperial or bloom tea: — "The plantation 
is inclosed with hedges, and likewise surrounded 
with a broad ditch for further security. The trees 
are planted to form regular rows with intervening 
walks. Persons are appointed to superintend the 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 29 

place, and preserve the leaves from injury or dirt. 
The labourers who are to gather them, for some 
weeks before they begin, abstain from every kind 
of gross food, or whatever might endanger commu- 
nicating any ill flavour : they pluck them, also, with 
no less delicacy, having on thin gloves." During 
the tea harvest, it would seem, great attention is 
paid to the diet of the husbandman. 

In the common tea-plant, the commencement of 
the leaf-gathering takes place in the early spring ; 
and three different crops are obtained during the 
summer. Scarcely, in the first instance, has the 
leaf attained its growth, and whilst it is yet bud- 
ding into life, than the picking commences ; and the 
tea will be fine in proportion to the tender age 
of the leaf; the most agreeable aroma and the 
most delicious flavour are then obtained from" it. 
A soft white down covers the first leaflets, 
which is called, in the Chinese language, Pa-ho, 
and hence our name Pekoe, the most exquisitely 
flavoured of those teas with which we are ac- 
quainted. Trees, until they reach the sixth year, 
furnish this tea. A few days' longer growth supplies 
us with the black leaf Pekoe. In the month of May, 
the leaves that have grown since the first gathering, 
having arrived at maturity, are stripped from the 
trees : these form the Souchong — the Seaou- 
choung, — "the small or scarce sort." About six 
weeks after this, there is a third gathering of the 
new crop thrown out ; and from the Chinese word, 
Koong-fou, signifying labour or assiduity, springs 
our term ^Congou. From this a particular part is 



30 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

selected, called Kien-poey, — a selection which 
is known to us under the name of Campoy. 
The tea familiar to us under the appellation of 
Bohea, should be the produce of the district from 
which it derives its name : it is a rough preparation 
of the later-grown leaves, which yield a beverage 
of little strength and of inferior flavour. Green teas 
undergo the same kind of harvest. From the tender 
leaflets is produced Hyson ; and a very expensive 
kind, Loontsing, is more particularly prized : it was 
called Yutsein, " before the rains ;" whilst Hyson 
is a corruption from " flowery spring.'' The Gun- 
powder is a Hyson gathered with great attention, 
and rolled with much nicety and care : indeed, it 
would appear to be a selection of the more delicate 
leaves. The coarser and yellower leaves remaining 
after this selection are called Hyson Skin. The 
Twankay is the last gathered crop, and consists of 
an older leaf; in which less attention is paid to the 
manipulations. 

The judgment shown in collecting the leaves at 
the various seasons evinces a great knowledge of 
vegetable organization, and of the succession of 
phenomena which are developed during the pro- 
gress of life. It is in the early spring that the sap 
or vegetable blood has little to convey to the leaf 
but the mucilaginous principle, and that aroma, 
peculiar to each vegetable, of whose existence 
we are by its effects rendered sensible, but of which 
our means of examination are so limited. On the 
first bursting into existence, leaves and flowers are 
endued with an evanescent odour, which art has at- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 31 

tempted to fix, and to diffuse through other bodies. 
Upon this much of the flavour of the plant depends ; 
and if we would wish to obtain all that strikingly 
characterises the vegetable, we must gather it as 
soon as this principle is at all developed. At a 
later period of the year, not only has the aromatic 
principle been exhaled, but the mucilaginous pro- 
perties are exchanged. A great proportion of the 
earthy phosphates exist in all plants in the month 
of May, but they are much diminished as the year 
advances. 

When the leaves have been picked, they are 
left in large bamboo baskets, exposed to the rays 
of the sun, being only occasionally stirred. After 
two or three hours, the peasants take the baskets 
into the house, and in the course of half an hour 
a series of manipulations commence, during which 
the manufacturer, at intervals of an hour, rolls the 
leaves three or four times between his fingers until 
they have become as soft as leather. When this 
operation is concluded, they are ready for the 
application of heat, for the purpose of drying and 
rendering them crisp. The temperature is adjusted 
according to the delicacy of the particular tea, and 
all the apparatus is regulated with the utmost 
nicety. The ordinary process is to place about 
two pounds of tea in a hot cast-iron pan, fixed in a 
small circular mud fireplace, heated by a fire of 
straw or of bamboo. The leaves are briskly agi- 
tated with the naked hand, to prevent their being 
burnt, and that each may have its due exposure 
to the proper action of the heat. When they have 



32 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

become sufficiently hot, they are placed in a closely 
worked bamboo basket, and thrown from it upon a 
table, where they are distributed into two or three 
parcels. Another set of manipulators roll them into 
balls with great gentleness and caution, and by a 
peculiar mode of handling them, express any juice 
they may contain. The leaves after this are again 
taken back to the hot pans, again turned with the 
naked hand, and, when heated, again removed. 
They are then spread on a sieve, rolled again, and 
then exposed to the action of heat, the whole being 
placed over a charcoal fire ; during this stage great 
care is necessary, lest any smoke should affect the 
tea. In all the varied changes from basket to 
basket, and they sometimes undergo many, atten- 
tion is paid lest any receiver should ever be 
placed upon the ground. The number of exposures 
to the action of the fire is sometimes very great, 
and an examination takes place from time to time, 
to ascertain the state to which the leaves have 
arrived. When they become crisp, and are easily 
broken, they are removed from the fire,^allowed to 
cool, and the process again commenced, until the 
experienced manufacturer is fully satisfied with the 
condition and the proper appearance of the tea. 

Although the names of a great number of teas 
are familiar to us in this country, it is to be borne 
in mind that these are almost all arbitrarily applied ; 
that each one is not the peculiar produce of a 
particular farm; nor are the crops of different 
lands kept as distinct from each other as are the 
different wines from particular vineyards. The 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 33 

agents of the Hong merchants visit the farms at 
the proper periods ; they purchase from the grower 
his stock ; they mix together the leaves from many 
farmers, in such proportions as they think most 
suitable to the predominant taste of their customers. 
The great discrimination they exercise is between 
the leaves of young and old shrubs : they employ a 
number of women and children to distribute these 
into fine, middling, and common teas; they then mix 
them, or they cause them to undergo a process of 
refiring, and make the crop, which has been ga- 
thered from an inferior farm, bear the resemblance 
of a better tea, or they mingle the two together. 
These agents possess a great deal of judgment ; and 
it is generally believed that, notwithstanding they 
have the cunning and love of profit which belongs 
to the Chinaman generally, they execute their 
task with much fidelity. It is also understood that 
the best teas of particular districts find their way 
into England. It is not, however, to be disguised, 
that they have undergone a greater degree of pre- 
paration than suits them for a Chinaman's taste ; and 
the residents at Canton consider that which they 
have for their own domestic supply to be much 
more agreeable and delicately flavoured than that 
which reaches our markets. This, however, may be 
accounted for from the well-known fact, that all 
vegetable products must lose a considerable portion 
of their natural aroma by long keeping, and par- 
ticularly by transportation across the ocean. A 
certain degree of heat is absolutely necessary for 
the tea even in China ; for if it be eat when newly 

D 



34 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

gathered, or previous to its having undergone any 
operation, it proves narcotic, and is ranked amongst 
the deleterious vegetables. It is therefore kept for 
some time and dried by heat for the use of the 
Chinese ; but for the European markets it undergoes 
a much longer process, which, if it do not exert 
much influence upon the characteristic qualities of 
the infusion made from it, must decidedly dissipate 
much of that aroma which gives to plants one of 
their powers. 

The teas that have been collected by the agency 
of the persons employed by the Hong merchants 
are made into parcels, containing from one hundred 
to six hundred chests ; and each of these bears its 
own peculiar mark or characteristic name, so that 
the purchaser is enabled to ascertain and to dis- 
tinguish each particular variety brought into the 
market. These distinctive marks are known only 
to those who have been initiated into the mysteries 
of the trade carried on by the Chinese with the 
English or American merchants, who are the prin- 
cipal Canton consumers, as the markets of Russia 
are entirely supplied through Tartary, and are 
principally dependent on the great fair held an- 
nually at Nishni Novogorod, at which are assembled 
merchants from all the provinces of Asia, who 
there interchange their commodities upon a scale 
now unknown* in Europe, but for which the great 
fairs of former days were established. These have 
since been superseded by the more organized com- 
munication which commerce has gradually intro- 
duced. 



AND MORAL EFFECTS, 35 

Bohea is the name of a district celebrated for the 
growth of black tea, and it is in China generally ap- 
plied to the varieties of black tea brought from that 
particular part of the country, in contra-distinction to 
those grown elsewhere ; thus, Bohea Congou, Bohea 
Souchong, or Bohea Pekoe, would imply that they 
actually came from that part of the country. In 
England, however, the appellation Bohea was given 
to all black teas brought to this country, before we 
admitted our present distinctions. We now apply it 
to the lowest grade of the black tea ; that which 
was brought into this country by the East India 
Company, was known by the exporters under the 
names of Canton Bohea and Fokien Bohea. 

The Canton Bohea is composed of the tea which 
remained unsold by the persons who supply the 
European market at the close of the season, in con- 
sequence of its inferiority to the rest of the supply. 
To this refused portion, an inferior tea from Wo-ping 
is added, which previously undergoes fresh firing, to 
enable it to bear its voyage to England. These two 
varieties form together a tea, which can be afforded 
cheaper to the consumers here, in comparison with 
the better sorts of the article. The composition 
varies in its quantity of Wo-ping, which is an 
inferior Congou, according to its price in the market : 
it has seldom less than five-tenths, but if the Congou 
happen to be cheap, the quantity is increased. The 
Fokien Bohea, although it be not a mixture, is not 
much more valuable ; it is made up of the last leaves 
gathered late in the year, and of the general refuse 
of the tea leaves, after all the best have been 
d 2 



36 TEA I ITS MEDICINAL 



& 



gathered. When Bohea is brought to market in Eng- 
land, it is frequently mixed with other teas, and is 
sold under three distinct grades, — ordinary, good, 
and middling Bohea ; and the better sort of Boheas 
often approximates very closely to inferior Congou, 
so that some judgment is necessary to distinguish 
them. At an early period Bohea was a very much 
worse tea than it now is, for not only was it com- 
posed of the large old leaves, and made up of those 
which had been damaged during manipulation, but 
leaves were substituted for it, which had never 
grown on the tea-shrub. It has gradually improved, 
and much of that which is now in the country fur- 
nishes a tolerably good beverage. 

Bohea, which at one period formed about a 
sixth of the importation made by the East India 
Company, has gradually diminished. It seldom un- 
dergoes such careful examination as do the other 
teas. That which is ordinarily found amongst tea- 
dealers presents a mixture of large leaves and small, 
with a considerable quantity of pieces, either so 
much broken or crushed as to resemble dust. The 
colour is a darkish brown ; the best is of a smaller 
size and a blackish hue : there is occasionally a 
tinge of green at the edges; sometimes the larger 
leaves adhere closely to each other ; those that are 
yellow are not good. A quantity of stalks may be 
found amongst them. The aroma is very faint, and 
has been generally compared to that which emanates 
from hay kept for a great length of time. If it have 
a faint smell, it is seldom good. Upon infusion this 
tea gives a mahogany colour to the water. It has a 



' AND MORAL EFFECTS. 37 

bitter taste, and requires much milk and sugar. 
This tea has not now a very great consumption in 
this country ; for even the humbler classes, if their 
means at all admit of it, will not purchase it: gener- 
ally speaking, they are excellent judges of tea. 
There is on this subject some very interesting in- 
formation to be collected from the evidence of 
numerous respectable tea-dealers examined before 
a Committee of the House of Commons. Most of 
them were residents in large towns, and had ample 
opportunity of becoming acquainted with the pre- 
vailing taste of the industrious inhabitants. Messrs. 
Nutter of Birmingham observed, on that occasion, 
that the improvident poor buy Bohea, not from 
preference but necessity ; whilst the provident and 
industrious consume scarcely any of the Bohea. 
Mr. Thorpe of Leeds likewise said, that the working 
and middling classes always buy the finest tea; and 
these opinions are amply borne out by the testi- 
monies of Mr. Weatherall of Stockton, Mr. Ridout 
of Canterbury, Messrs. Macdowell and Trainer of 
Wiveliscombe, Messrs. Constance and Matthews of 
Bath, Mr. Bryant of Bristol, Mr. Heming of Perth, 
and Mr. Watson of Newcastle. Mr. Miller, of the 
firm of Miller and Lowcock, at one period the 
largest purchasers of teas at the East India Com- 
pany's sales, said that they have supplied to their 
correspondents in England in five years, upon an 
average, five hundred thousand pounds' weight of all 
other descriptions of tea, to one hundred thousand 
pounds' weight of Bohea. In Scotland they have 
supplied, upon the average, one chest of Bohea to 
J) 3 



38 TEA ;' ITS MEDICINAL 

nine of Congou. In Dublin they have not had a 
very extensive, but a very respectable, business; 
and two of their principal friends there have never 
had a single chest of Bohea ; but he believed the 
average to be, as Mr. Butler, a respectable mer- 
chant, stated, one chest of Bohea tea to eight of 
Congou. He likewise stated that the poor are ex- 
cellent judges of tea, and have a great nicety of dis- 
crimination, preferring good Congou ; and that they 
will walk very considerable distances to purchase 
at a shop at which they can rely. It would alto- 
gether appear, that a very small quantity of Canton 
Bohea is sold in this country in the state in which it 
is imported, but that it is mixed by the retailer with 
the Congou tea, and that it would require a very 
discriminating eye to judge of the difference between 
a superior Bohea and an inferior Congou. 

Congou, or Cong-fou, is a superior kind of Bohea : 
the leaves are gathered from the shrub somewhat 
earlier, or it may be occasionally a selection from 
the best Bohea : it has a greater variety of qualities 
than Bohea, and has had considerable attention paid 
to its preparation for its exportation from China: 
it does not yield so high a colour to water as Bohea, 
a pale amber being the general result : the leaf has 
a blacker appearance, should feel crisp, and be 
easily crumbled : its smell is agreeable when good, 
but, when indifferent, it has a heated smell, and a 
faint and unpleasant taste ; much of these qualities 
will depend upon the selection. In London there 
are three varieties acknowledged by the trade, — 
Congou, Campoi Congou, and Ankoy Congou. The 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 39 

Campoi has an agreeable violet smell, and is re- 
markable for its pleasant flavour ; it is so little to 
be distinguished from Souchong, that the East India 
Company gave whichever name they pleased to the 
importation, according to the demand for the one 
or the other in the British market. A great deal 
of their tea imported as Souchong, should have 
been brought forward as Campoi ; and it may fairly 
be stated that, practically, between Souchong and 
Campoi there is no very intelligible difference ; it 
may certainly be somewhat fresher, but it does not 
possess any marked superiority over good Congou. 
The inhabitants of the district called Ankoy, have 
exerted themselves much in the cultivation and pre- 
paration of tea ; and they convert a good crop of 
the tea into a very excellent quality, a portion 
of which they especially attend to for the English 
market ; although the English residents at Canton do 
think not very highly of the Ankoy Congou ; nor has 
it become a favourite in this country : its flavour 
is said to be lost on the voyage. There seems to 
have been a prejudice against this tea; and although 
the inhabitants of the district have the reputation 
of endeavouring to make a character, yet they do 
not appear to have succeeded. It is said that they 
often mix their products with the leaves of other 
trees ; and Milburn, in the Oriental Commerce^ ob- 
serveSj " that not being much esteemed in London, 
it should not be taken by the commanders and 
officers to exchange for such part of their invest- 
ments as cannot be disposed of by public sale ; it 
should be rejected if it possibly can," he continues, 
d 4 



40 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

" and any other tea taken instead of it/' Congou is 
the tea most consumed in England; but a part 
of that which is retailed, is a mixture of Congou 
and of Bohea, which is sold under the general name 
of Congou. The proportions of these mingled to- 
gether, vary according to the tea-dealers' idea of 
that which may suit his customers generally, and 
also for the purpose of increasing his profit. The 
great mass of the inhabitants of London like a good 
strong-flavoured Congou; and they think very justly, 
that two spoonsful of Congou will go further than 
three of an inferior class of tea. The wholesale 
dealer only mixes the tea when called upon to do so 
by the retail trader ; nor would he maintain the high 
character which belongs to that class of merchants, 
if he were not to sell as Bohea that which he ob- 
tained as such, and Congou without altering its 
quality ; but the tea-dealer upon the smaller scale 
is constantly called on to suit the caprice of the 
consumer, and is often obliged to make up a tea to 
suit a particular part of the country. Since permits 
have ceased to be required for the transport of tea 
from one place to another., opportunities occur, 
which the greedy tea-dealer avails himself of, to mix 
up teas of various grades, without reproach to his 
conscience. Some individuals have made large for- 
tunes by the exhibition of great judgment in making 
mixtures, which have gained the estimation of the 
consumers ; and to this there can be no objection, if 
it be honestly carried into execution. 

Souchong. Seaou-chung, the small kind, is a 
good tea, well flavoured, and supposed to be some- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 41 

what of a higher quality than the best Congou ; it 
is said to be very carefully dried ; it is crisper and 
drier than the other black teas ; its smell is more 
fragrant, and it is a little rough to the palate. It 
forms a good infusion of a light amber colour, and 
the leaves change to a reddish brown. There are 
two kinds of Souchong which do not find their 
way as generally recognised teas, as does the ordi- 
nary Souchong, namely, the Caper Souchong and 
the Padre Souchong. The Caper Souchong has 
obtained its name from the leaf being rolled up, so 
as to resemble the caper; it is one of the many 
varieties which was not regularly brought into the 
country by the East India Company; the leaves 
are of a fine black gloss, heavy; there is a plea- 
sant fragrance attached to them, and they are of 
a very agreeable flavour; but the Padre Souchong, 
or Pow-Chong, is even more highly tasted. It 
scarcely bears the sea voyage, and what was found 
in this country was generally brought as presents. 
There are now very large quantities imported, but 
of a very inferior quality. 

Pekoe, or Pa-ho, is the most valuable of the black 
teas ; although it may be collected from plants of all 
ages, yet the tea-tree of three years' standing yields 
the best. It should be gathered as soon as the leaves 
are developed, and should be the tenderest. The 
more flowers found amongst its leaves the better is 
the sort. Its flavour is very agreeable, but it is 
rather too strongly marked ; it is taken in a much 
more palatable form when mixed with Souchong, 
than when it is drank alone. 



42 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

The green teas familiar to us are Hyson, Gun- 
powder, Singlo, and Twankay. The Hyson is 
the first crop of the green tea-plant ; it has a fine 
blooming appearance ; the leaf is small, and well 
rolled up, but on infusion it opens clear and 
smooth ; should it be shrivelled up, it is not good ; 
it is dry and crisp, and crumbles easily; it im- 
parts a green tinge to water, which acquires a 
strong pungent taste, yielding an agreeable odour. 
The Hyson Skin is a selection from the ordinary 
Hyson, of those leaves which are not so strikingly 
good ; if they are not so well formed, or not so 
well coloured, they are removed from the fine 
Hyson, and an inferior quality of this tea is the 
result. It has a brassy taste, without the fine aroma 
of Hyson ; nor has it the external characteristics, 
— there is very little bloom. On the other hand, 
Gunpowder is a selection from the Hyson of the 
very best leaves that are found ; these are rolled up 
into firm hard balls, which resemble small pearls. 
This tea is of exquisite flavour, and the drinkers 
of green tea prefer it to all others. The slightest 
exposure to air, or even the action of the breath, 
quickly dissipates the fine aroma which is one 
of its most striking characteristics. Adultera- 
tions of this tea have been so common, both in 
China and in this country, that the lover of this 
variety seems seldom satisfied that he is drinking it 
in all its purity : indeed, such are the impositions 
practised with regard to it, that it is sometimes 
advertised for sale at a less price than it can be 
purchased at Canton. 



AND MORAL EFFECTS, 43 

Singlo and Twankay are the last gatherings of 
the green tea during the summer season, of which 
the latter is considered the best. These gatherings 
are distributed into two or three sorts. Great care 
is taken that the leaves of the first should be tho- 
roughly formed, that they should have their full 
development, and that they be perfectly clean. 
After this has been done, the second selection takes 
place of the leaves, which are in a secondary state 
of perfection, and what remains forms the inferior 
quality of these teas. The leaves of this sort are 
observed to be more pointed, and to be somewhat 
larger than those of the black tea. The infusion 
formed by these sorts is of a bright green ; the 
Twankay, however, yields a paler colour than the 
Singlo. There are many different sorts of both 
these teas, and either the art of preparation is less 
thoroughly understood, or they are more easily 
affected by the variations of temperature, of seasons, 
and of soil ; but certain it is that none of the green 
teas are so uniform in their characteristics as are 
the black. Many experienced persons believe that 
the green tea is altogether artificially prepared; 
whilst others consider that the black is the same 
leaf, but that it undergoes the process which gives 
it colour, and renders it much milder in its effects. 
The Chinese themselves rarely drink green tea, 
and then only the produce of particular farms, 
which have obtained a high character. The leaves 
of all of them are much more liable to be changed by 
the action of the atmospheric air, and very speedily 
lose that beautiful bloom which, amongst many tea- 



44 TEA ; 'its medicinal 

drinkers, is highly valued. The heavier these teas 
weigh, the better are they imagined to be ; and they 
are much oftener scented by some other leaf; and 
great is the attention of the factor given to attract 
his customer by the fragrance and by the appear- 
ance. He often gives an additional dryness to the 
leaf after damp weather ; and generally, immediately 
before he brings it in the market for sale, he again 
dries it, to give the crispness which should belong to 
it. It often happens that those teas which strike the 
eye at Canton, are found, on their arrival in America, 
where they are very much esteemed and generally 
preferred to the black, not to satisfy the consumer, 
from the changes that have occurred during the 
voyage. 

These teas are often dried over the fumes of 
burning indigo ; and a very small quantity mixed 
with powdered gypsum, is delicately sprinkled over 
them, which adds to the colour. Different modes of 
flavouring the tea are likewise practised : the blossom 
buds of fragrant flowers are thrown amongst the 
finest teas. In the Loontsing Pekoe these are very 
discernible. After torrefaction has taken place in the 
iron pans destined for that purpose, the dried leaves 
are delicately touched with a camel-hair pencil, which 
has been dipped in spirituous solutions of resinous 
and aromatic gums ; and for this purpose a number 
of children are employed. The Chinese distinguish 
two kinds, more particularly the Boui, or Bou Tcha, 
and the Soumlo, which are reserved for the invalid. 
They likewise make it into cakes ; and of this sort 
there is a particular kind, called Mandarin Tea, which 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 45 

is an extract from the leaves. This is rarely im- 
ported into England. Sir Anthony Carlisle pre- 
sented, however, a very fine specimen of it to the 
Royal Medico-Botanical Society ; it was in the form 
of a dry, solid, blackish mass, easily broken and 
reduced to powder. There are other varieties 
which occasionally find their way into this country 
as presents. Ning-yong, Pouchong, Orange Pekoe, 
Hung Muey, have become within a few years fa- 
miliar to us ; and there is little doubt other names 
will soon be made known to us, and their characters 
will be investigated and compared. Amongst those 
that are brought to the Canton markets are, 
Quongsow, HeehKe, Kee Cheem, Sing Kee, Quang 
Tay, Quang Fat, Quang Tack, Ka Kee, Cheem 
Chunn, Wa Chunn, Yock Chunn, and other eupho- 
nous names, which may hereafter be as well known 
to us as any of those w T hich, from their long reputa- 
tion, have become standard teas. 

There is a tea known throughout the north of 
Europe under the name of Caravan Tea, and in 
some places under that of Kaisar-tae, or the 
Emperor's tea, imported into Russia by way of 
Kiachta. It is seldom found in this country ; 
the leaf is remarkably large, not much dried, and 
of a deep black colour, mixed with footstalks of 
the plant, and occasionally slender twigs of the 
smallest dimensions. These teas are in all 
respects superior in point of taste and flavour to 
those consumed in England, France, and Holland. 
They are not the produce of the provinces which 
furnish these markets, but of the centre of China. 



46 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

They are conveyed by land, to which much of 
their superiority is to be attributed, as the sea 
voyage deteriorates all teas, and causes them to 
lose their strength, freshness, and flavour. As Mr. 
Crawfurd has observed, the difference between the 
teas coming sea-wise, and those brought by land 
through Kiachta is so remarkable, that it is no 
exaggeration to say, — that a pound of the last goes 
as far as two pounds of the first. The Caravan tea 
finds its way into Germany ; in Bohemia I have 
tasted some of a remarkably fine 'quality, but it is 
difficult to get it genuine. That which is occasion- 
ally met with in this country has lost much of its 
quality, though it still has a considerable share of 
flavour and aroma. It requires to be infused in much 
larger quantities than ordinary Souchong, which 
proves its inferiority to the Caravan tea of Russia. 
All classes consume the Caravan tea, from the lord 
to the serf. The course of the Russian trade 
with China is of excessive tediousness; and the 
conveyance by water occupies no less a space of 
time than three years ; when it is brought by land 
a year is consumed. It is, however, to be remem- 
bered in the computation of the water carriage, 
that the actual time in which it is on its jour- 
ney, is about three or four months in each sum- 
mer, for the rivers are frozen up and impassable for 
eight or nine months in each year. The black tea 
is that which is preferred ; for the green tea is not 
a favourite in Russia. The duty is precisely the 
same there on all the qualities, whether they be 
good, bad, or indifferent. The trade is carried on 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 47 

by the Russian merchants, entirely in barter, for 
the productions of Russia : hence the price of tea 
at Kiachta is unknown. All persons engaging in 
the traffic pay a sort of corporation tax, which 
licenses this employment : they are for the most 
part inhabitants of Muscovy, but any person may 
obtain the requisite permission on paying the 
droits des guildes. 

My own experience of the excellence of tea in 
Russia arose out of a curious incident, which 
occurred to me during a hasty visit I made to 
that highly interesting country. Previous to 
this adventure, I had been in the habit of tak- 
ing coffee, as my ordinary beverage, and was by no 
means satisfied with it. I had no idea of the pre- 
vailing habit of tea-drinking previous to my arrival 
at Moscow. In the course of the afternoon I left 
my hotel alone, obtaining from my servant a card, 
with the name of the street, La Rue de Demetrius, 
written upon it. I wandered about that magnificent 
citadel, the Kremlin, until dark, and I found myself 
at some distance from the point from which I 
started, and I endeavoured to return to it, and 
asked several persons the way to my street, of which 
they all appeared ignorant. I therefore got into one 
of the drotzskis, and intimated to my Cossack driver 
that I should be enabled to point out my own 
street. Although we could not understand each 
other, we did our mutual signs : and with the great- 
est cheerfulness and goodnature this man drove 
me through every street, but I could no where re- 
cognise my hotel. He therefore drove me to his 



48 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

humble abode in the environs ; he infused the finest 
tea that I had ever seen in a peculiarly shaped 
saucepan, set it on a stove, and this, when nearly 
boiled, he poured out ; and a more delicious bever- 
age, nor one more acceptable after a day's fatigue 
and anxiety, I have not tasted. He gave me the 
provision his humble cot afforded, and seemed de- 
lighted that I cheerfully partook of it. I could not 
avoid becoming impatient, and expressing some 
anxiety lest I should not recover my hotel. He left 
the house, making me understand that he should not 
long be absent; and in about ten minutes he re- 
turned with a comrade, who evidently was an 
Asiatic, and addressed me in various dialects, all 
unintelligible. They seemed to give up the hope 
of understanding me, and again left me, to return 
with another person, who was a German, to whom 
I made myself easily understood, told him my tale, 
to which he listened with great attention, but had 
no idea there was such a street as La Rue de 
Demetrius. My Cossack friend, in no way express- 
ing the slightest impatience or neglect, set out upon 
another expedition, and returned with a Frenchman, 
who immediately translated my address into " Me- 
trirYsky," which was no sooner made known to my 
Cossack, than he cheerfully prepared his horse and 
his drotzski, again sallied forth, and brought me safe 
to my hotel, accepting the little gratuity I offered 
him almost reluctantly. When he understood, 
through the German, that I was English, his joy 
seemed great : he gave me as a reason, through the 
interpreter, that the Emperor Nicholas (of whom he 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 49 

spoke as a deity amongst men) loved the English. 
If the blessings of the poor inhabitants of his empire 
are dear to a monarch, none can more experience 
delightful sensations than the Emperor of Russia. 
Whatever may be the political feeling existing 
against an absolute monarch, it must be softened 
towards the individual, when we find him recog- 
nised by his people as a beneficent father. 

That damaged black leaves can be manufactured 
into green, an anecdote related by Mr. Davis fully 
proves. The remission of the tea duties in the 
United States, occasioned, in the years 1S32 and 
1833, a demand for green teas at Canton, which 
could not be supplied by the arrivals from the pro- 
vinces. The Americans, however, were obliged to 
sail with cargoes of. green teas within the favourable 
season ; they were determined to have these teas, 
and the Chinese were determined they should be 
supplied. Certain rumours being afloat concerning 
the manufacture of green tea from old black leaves, 
Mr. Davis became curious to ascertain the fact, 
and with some difficulty persuaded a Hong mer- 
chant to conduct him, accompanied by one of the 
inspectors, to the place where the operation was 
carried on. Upon reaching the opposite side of the 
river, and entering one of these laboratories of fac- 
titious Hyson, the parties were witnesses to a 
strange scene. 

In the first place, large quantities of black tea, 
which had been damaged in consequence of the 
floods of the previous autumn, were drying in bas- 
kets with sieve bottoms, placed over pans of char- 
E 



50 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

coal. The dried leaves were then transferred in 
portions of a few pounds each to a great number of 
cast-iron pans, imbedded in chunam or mortar, over 
furnaces. At each pan stood a workman, stirring 
the tea rapidly round with his hand, having previ- 
ously added a small quantity of turmeric, in powder, 
which of course gave the leaves a yellowish or 
orange tinge ; but they were still to be made green. 
For this purpose some lumps of a fine blue were 
produced, together with a white substance, in pow- 
der, which, from the names given to them by the 
workmen, as well as their appearance, were known 
at once to be Prussian blue and gypsum. These 
were triturated finely together with a small pestle, 
in such proportion as reduced the dark colours of 
the blue to a light shade ; and a quantity, equal to a 
small tea-spoonful, of the powder being added to the 
yellowish leaves, these were stirred, as before, over 
the fire, until the tea had taken the fine bloom co- 
lour of Hyson, with much the same scent. To 
prevent all possibility of error regarding the sub- 
stances employed, samples of them, together with 
the specimens of the leaves in each stage of the pro- 
cess, were carried away from the place. The tea 
was then handed in small quantities, on broad shal- 
low baskets, to a number of women and children, 
who carefully picked out the stalks and coarse 
or uncurled leaves ; and when this had been 
done, it was passed in succession through sieves of 
different degrees of fineness. The first sifting was 
sold as Hyson Skin, and the last bore the name of 
Young Hyson. The Chinese seemed quite con- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 51 

scious of the real character of the occupation in 
which they were engaged ; for, on attempting to 
enter several other places where the same process 
was going on, the doors were speedily closed upon 
the party. 

There was an idea once prevalent, that the colour 
of the green tea was to be ascribed to the drying 
the leaves on copper ; but nothing can be more un- 
founded than such an opinion, as the pans, one 
of which was sent home by an officer of the East 
India Company, are of cast-iron. That copper 
may be detected in tea is true ; but Bucholz 
has shown that it exists in several vegetables ; in- 
deed, there are proofs that it enters into the com- 
position of a great proportion of animal and veget- 
able matter. It is found in coffee in very striking 
quantities ; from ten ounces of unroasted coffee 
there may be obtained, by the proper manipulations, 
a dense precipitate, which will coat two inches of 
harpsichord wire with metallic copper. And he 
who eats a sandwich, has much more to fear from 
the poisonous effects of this metal, than the drinker 
of green tea ; for the two slices of bread, the beef, 
and the mustard, all have been proved, by the ex- 
amination of the chemist, to be capable of forming in 
the stomach a metallic crust ; indeed, the only safe 
food would be potatoes, for in three pounds no cop- 
per could be traced. Dr. O. Shaughnessy, with a 
view of elucidating a question, as to the possibility 
of mistaking the symptoms of death by poison, took 
two eggs, three cups of strong coffee, and eight 
ounces of bread and butter ; he formed these into a 
e 2 



52 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

mass, he dried it, and after incinerating it, submitted 
it to the proper tests, and the metallic copper was 
distinctly obtained. I have, in a lecture which ap- 
peared in The Lancet of last year, shown that there is 
little reason to doubt of its existence even in the 
human blood ; the proportion, however, is very 
minute. 

A Chinese, whose treatise on teas attracted con- 
siderable attention in Canton, and whose opinions 
were given in The Canton Register in 1838, states 
that the difference of the black and green colours 
arises from the different processes that the teas un- 
dergo ; he says, — 

" The tree which produces the green teas is the 
same as that which produces the black teas : there 
is no difference between the trunks of the two trees ; 
but there is a slight difference in the leaves. The 
black tea leaf is long and pointed ; the green tea 
leaf is short and round : and this difference is oc- 
casioned by the diversity of the two soils; the 
cause of the difference between the colours of the 
black and green teas proceeds from the different 

methods used in frying *W^ and firing 0'>*. the 

leaves. Frying is the first process ; and it is con- 
ducted in iron pans, which are placed over bright 
charcoal fires, and the leaves are stirred about 
quickly by the hand. Firing is the second process ; 
then the leaves are put into bamboo baskets, which 
are placed over slower charcoal fires, and the leaves 
are not stirred. 

" The green teas are only fried over slow fires ; 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 53 

the leaves are not afterwards fired in bamboo 
baskets. 

" The black teas are roasted in highly-heated iron 
pans, in quantities of only one to two taels (ounces) 
at a time, and until each particular leaf is tho- 
roughly dry and crisp ; the leaves are afterwards 
fired over slower fires ; hence the blackness of the 
leaf. Thus, although green teas can easily be made 
into black teas, black teas cannot be converted into 
green : because another colour can be given to 
green but not to black teas." 

That adulterations and mixtures of inferior teas 
with higher qualities are constantly practised in 
China, some of the importations which have re- 
cently been made fully prove ; and that impositions 
have been frequently detected, there can be no 
doubt ; but it is at home that we too often have had 
reason to complain of the want of honesty in the 
mercantile speculator, and the total forgetfulness 
of his own honour, and of the confidence which 
society reposes in its members. 

In every occupation of life there will be found 
individuals who, from base and sordid motives, will 
practise gross or scandalous impositions upon the 
public, regardless of the health and welfare of those 
who are unfortunately dependent on them. As a 
body, the dealers in tea bear as high a character 
as any tradesmen in this great community ; but the 
numerous trials and convictions that have taken 
place for the substitution of a spurious compound for 
genuine tea, prove that there have been mercenary 
wretches, who not only have manufactured an ar- 
e 3 , < 



54 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

tide of doubtful quality, but have even sold dele- 
terious and poisonous mixtures. Various have been 
the prosecutions which have taken place in the 
Court of Exchequer, by which have been unveiled 
the infamous frauds practised by some of these ne- 
farious persons. In the year 1828 public attention 
was much excited by the disclosure of a regular 
manufactory of this fabricated tea : it appeared in 
evidence in court, that certain parties hired la- 
bourers to furnish them with the leaves of the white 
and black thorn tree, who were paid at the rate of 
two-pence per pound for the produce. These leaves, 
that they might be converted into an article resem- 
bling black tea, were first boiled, then baked upon 
an iron plate, and, when dried, rubbed with the hand, 
in order to produce the curl which belongs to the 
genuine tea ; the colour was given by logwood, so 
that the infusion of logwood was drunk instead of 
tea; this was, however, a harmless preparation in com- 
parison with that which the artificial green tea was 
made to undergo. In this manufacture the leaves, 
after being pressed and dried, were laid upon sheets 
of copper, where they received their colour from an 
article known by the name of Dutch pink, one of 
the component parts of this powder being white 
lead ; to which was added, for the purpose of pro- 
ducing that fine green bloom visible in good green 
tea, verdegris : thus it appeared, that, whilst the 
purchaser believed he was drinking a pleasant 
and nutritious beverage, he was swallowing the 
produce of the hedges round the metropolis, pre- 
pared in the most noxious manner. The persons 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 55 

who delivered their evidence stated only what they 
saw ; and their evidence was sufficient, as may be 
seen by the report of the trials given in the public 
journals of the day, to produce a most extraordinary 
sensation ; or, to use the words employed on one 
occasion, " a feeling of horror seemed here to per- 
vade the whole court." The penalties which fol- 
lowed in this case upon the verdict for the crown, 
amounted to 840/. ; a sum by no means large, when 
considered in relation to the enormity of the 
offence. 

Several informations were laid at the same time 
against tea-dealers and grocers; and the solicitor 
of the Excise had in court a box, containing up- 
wards of twenty samples of different qualities of 
tea, from the most costly to the most common. 
During one investigation Mr. Hyslop of Croydon 
stated, that in his perambulations through his 
woods and grounds, his notice was attracted by 
several women, who, he observed, were daily pick- 
ing ash, sloe, and elder leaves from the trees. He 
was fearful they would damage the young trees 
and hedges, and his curiosity led him to inquire 
for what purpose they wanted those leaves. One 
of the women informed him that they came every 
day from London, a distance of about twelve miles, 
to pick those leaves, and returned every evening 
with a bag full ; that they were paid at the rate 
of one penny a pound for them ; and that they were, 
as they understood, intended for an eminent che- 
mist and druggist in town, who used them in some 
patent medicines ; for, by a late discovery, ash 
e 4 



56 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

leaves, particularly of young branches, were found 
in every respect a substitute for senna ; and that a 
great quantity were exported both to the East and 
West Indies. Mr. Hyslop further stated that, taking 
compassion on the poor women who came such a 
distance, and finding they picked the leaves care- 
fully, without doing any injury to the trees or 
hedges, he permitted them to pick as much as they 
chose; and that he likewise gave one of the women 
a shilling two or three times : but he did not in the 
least suspect that those leaves were intended to be 
imposed on the public for tea. On one occasion 
an excise officer gave evidence before the magis- 
trates, that he found in one house a quantity of 
leaves, half of them were ash, and a great part sloe 
leaves. The weight of what he found was about 
166lbs. ; some of them being in a green state, 
the others manufactured : such as were green 
appeared to him be sloe leaves, or ash. Part of 
the leaves were laid out upon screens, and some 
on stoves, for the purpose of drying. He also 
found some sieves, upon which the manufactured 
article was spread out ; there was also an iron pot, 
in which was deposited a sort of colouring matter. 
In this pot he also found some leaves. The manu- 
factured article found in the house very much 
resembled tea. In another house he found, with 
other excise officers, twelve casks of fabricated tea, 
nailed down ; they were examined, and contained 
the article he had seen on the former occasion. 
The casks were such as American flour was com- 
monly imported in, and the surface was covered 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 57 

with paper. The leaves were brought before the 
magistrates in their varied stages of manufacture. 
One sort was made to be mixed with ordinary 
Bohea, in the proportion of six pounds of the spu- 
rious kind to two pounds of real tea. Some of the 
persons employed for this process were Prussian 
blue manufacturers. 

In order to allay the excitement of the public, 
as well as to do justice to themselves, the more 
respectable tea-dealers not only disclaimed all 
knowledge of the parties implicated in the fright- 
ful disclosures which had occurred, but strenu- 
ously pointed out how much their own interests 
would lead them to defend the public from the 
shameful impositions so practised. Amongst those 
who took an anxious part on the occasion, was 
Mr. Richard Twining : at one of the sales of 
the East India Company's teas, he dwelt forcibly 
upon the odium that would rest upon the whole 
body of tea-dealers, instead of a few obscure 
individuals, if they did not positively deny the 
reports in circulation, that nine-tenths of the tea- 
trade adulterated their tea with ash, sloe, and other 
leaves. He felt satisfied that no respectable house* 
in the City of London was guilty of such illegal 
practices, and therefore they ought not to suffer an 
imputation of so serious a nature to pass unno- 
ticed. At first he and other persons, the heads of 
the trade, thought that the falsehood of so general 
a censure was so glaring, that no person would 
give credence to it, and therefore it would be best 
not to notice the aspersion : but this statement 



58 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

had gained such belief, that he thought it necessary 
that a committee should be appointed by the gene- 
ral body of the tea-trade, with a view to examine 
what course should be pursued to expose the per- 
petrators of such an abominable fraud. This 
proposition was seconded, and the appointment of 
highly influential persons to act as a committee 
Was made; but the determined manner in which 
the state prosecutions were carried on, quickly 
exposed and punished the real practisers of the 
deceit, the Board of Excise feeling, that, not only 
for the sake of the revenue, but for the satisfac- 
tion of the people, it was necessary to take imme- 
diate and decided steps. 

Sloe leaves have been more generally employed 
in this nefarious practice ; and in the year 1 778, 
there was a printed circular, signed by the chairman 
and secretary of a company of grocers at Norwich, 
stating that they had seen a small quantity of green 
tea, of which one fourth-part was avowedly sloe 
leaves. In the reign of George II. an act of 
Parliament recites, that " several ill-disposed per- 
" sons do frequently fabricate, dye, or manufacture 
" very great quantities of sloe leaves, liquorice 
" leaves, and the leaves of tea that have before been 
" used, or the leaves of other trees, shrubs, or plants, 
" in imitation of tea, and do likewise mix, colour, 
"stain, and dye, such leaves with terra japonica, 
"sugar, molasses, clay, logwood, and with other 
"ingredients, and do sell and vend the same as 
"real tea, to the prejudice of the health of his 
" Majesty's subjects, the diminution of his revenue, 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 59 

"and to the ruin of the fair trader :" the act then 
declares, "that the dealer in and seller of such 
"sophisticated teas, shall forfeit the sum of ten 
"pounds for every pound weight." In a report of 
the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1783, 
it is stated that the quantity of fictitious tea annu- 
ally manufactured from sloe, liquorice, and ash tree 
leaves, in different parts of England, to be mixed 
with genuine teas, is computed at four millions of 
pounds; and that, at a time when the whole quantity 
of genuine tea sold by the East India Company, 
did not exceed more than six millions of pounds 
annually. 

In a pamphlet on the tea-plant it is stated, 
that a gentleman had made the most accurate in- 
quiries on the subject of the adulteration of tea, 
which had led to his ascertaining the circum- 
stances connected with this iniquitous manufacture. 
He found that the smouch for mixing with black 
teas is made of the leaves of the ash. When 
gathered they are first dried in the sun, then baked ; 
they are next put upon a floor and trod upon until the 
leaves are small, and afterwards sifted and steeped 
in copperas with sheep's dung. When the liquor is 
strained off, they are baked and trod upon until the 
leaves are still smaller, when they are considered fit 
for use. The quantity manufactured in one small 
village, and within eight or ten miles of it, cannot 
be ascertained, but it is supposed to be about twenty 
tons in a year. One man acknowledged to have 
made up six hundred weight in every week for six 
months together ; the fine was sold at four guineas 



60 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

per cwt., equal to nine-pence per lb. ; the coarse at 
two guineas per cwt., equal to four-pence half-penny 
per lb. Elder buds are manufactured in some 
places to represent fine tea. Among the herbs that 
have occasionally been employed, are some of the 
most deleterious, such as the black and the deadly 
nightshade, ivy leaves, the leaves of the alder and 
of the potato; mountain sage, and the husks of 
wheat, have likewise been similarly applied. Be- 
sides these noxious vegetables, various minerals have 
been employed, either to give a curl to the spurious 
leaf, or to dye it; vitriolic preparations, verde- 
gris, and copperas, have been thus made use of. 
There are various pamphlets in existence, published 
at the latter end of the last century, under the 
names of The Tea Purchasers Guide, and The 
Ladys and Gentleman's Tea Table and Useful 
Companion, which contain some curious histories 
of the importation of damaged teas, and their sale 
by government. It would appear that great quan- 
tities were captured on board some Dutch vessels, 
and sold ; they were little better than dirt, and so 
exceedingly disgustful (according to these author- 
ities) to the eye, that few would have thought 
them worth acceptance ; the smell of them was a 
musty brackishness, occasioned by the salt water 
having got to them while at sea, in which state they 
were for a considerable time. These, however, 
underwent the operations of fumigating, greying, 
and dyeing, with so much success, that they deceived 
persons conversant with tea ; and even on a trial, 
good tea and some of this recovered tea were pro- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 61 

duced, to enable a jury to decide upon the com- 
parative qualities. 

The Chinese have been accused of themselves 
adulterating the tea, and undoubtedly this has 
been the case; they have, when discovered, re- 
paired the evil as far as they could, by exchanging 
that which has been declared bad. The brokers 
in the English market are generally upon their 
guard, and it would be a matter of the greatest 
difficulty for any bad trash to find its way into the 
market. They examine with great attention, and 
report with undeviating fidelity, that which they 
have observed, as to the character and appearance, 
as well as the weight, of the contents of every chest 
offered at the general sales. 

The deceptions practised in the tea trade have 
been long a subject of great notoriety and frequent 
complaint ; but some of those persons who have 
written most vehemently against tea-dealers, have 
singularly enough promoted their schemes by giving 
recipes on the art of mixing one quality of tea with 
another, and entering into minute rules for im- 
proving indifferent teas by the addition of the more 
highly flavoured qualities. These writers have 
stated that Pekoe is seldom agreeable to tea-drinkers 
alone, and recommend that one ounce of Pekoe 
should be added to a pound of fine Souchong. That 
Souchong or Congou may be improved by such means, 
there can be no doubt ; but those who have been 
in the habit of taking good Pekoe, would never 
think of such an admixture. It is, when used un- 
mixed, delicious ; it must however, to be fairlyjudged 



62 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

of, be tasted without sugar, or with the smallest 
possible quantity, and likewise without milk. We 
are almost unacquainted with the delightful qua- 
lities of what may be designated a natural tea. 
Such changes, such mixtures, and such metamor- 
phoses, go forward in various quarters, that we 
have an artificial compound of a very doubtful 
character constantly presented to us. Those who 
are the advocates of this system, and the artists of 
this manufacture, excuse themselves on the plea 
that they must gratify the acquired taste of the 
people, who are for the greater part fond of a strong 
beverage, and of a tea that can be tasted in spite 
of the sugar and milk. They likewise dwell upon 
the fact, that even in our wines we prefer too often 
a mixture to a natural growth. Thus the claret, 
which is so highly prized in England, is a parti- 
cular manufacture, called Travail a VAnglaise, 
made up of several stronger wines. We are accused 
in this country of wanting the power of appreciating 
those delicate flavours to which some other people 
are so completely alive. We are declared to be 
ignorant of the nice art of administering gratifica- 
tion to the palate ; strong stimuli are required, 
whilst the more agreeable, yet lightly flavoured 
objects escape our attention. The tea sold 
under the name of Howqua's Mixture is formed 
from several teas; they are of a good quality, 
and have evidently been mingled with much 
knowledge of the prevailing taste of the tea- 
drinkers of this country ; this mixture has there- 
fore become a favourite with many individuals. 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 63 

Various importations of a doubtful character were 
made when the East India Company's privileges 
first expired, and great fears were entertained that 
the country would be inundated by an article of 
inferior quality. Some teas brought over in 1834, 
were indeed of a miserable description, and doubt- 
less found vent amongst the different classes of 
consumers. This evil corrected itself; the great 
competition in trade inducing the merchant to exert 
himself, and the tradesman to bring before the 
public that only which meets with a ready sale. 

The necessity of avoiding an entire dependence 
upon China for tea, has long struck some of our 
most intelligent statesmen ; and the idea of rearing 
the tea plant in India, of a quality and in quantity 
to satisfy the English market, was sanguinely 
entertained : the wealth that would accrue to Bengal 
had been estimated, after making every allowance 
for the fall in price, from two to three millions 
annually ; whilst the prospect of seeing the sandy 
and barren slopes of rugged mountains the seats of 
agricultural industry, was painted in glowing colours. 
The experiments, alike instructive in their failure 
and their partial success, which had been instituted 
by other nations, proved that in many parts of the 
globe the tea-plant vegetated and arrived at a state 
of the utmost perfection; for it had been reared 
in Java, St. Helena, Brazil, Penang, Carolina, Rio 
Janeiro, and even in Paris and in Corsica it had 
been obtained, equal in appearance to the tea of com- 
merce. Nor was the reflection absent from the minds 
of considerate men, that to China the commerce 



64 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

carried on with this country was by no means so 
important to the government that they would make 
any very great effort to retain it : the suspension of 
the trade might produce serious inconvenience to 
the parties concerned, and might diminish the re- 
venues ; but the government reposes confidence in 
her enormous population, in the certainty that the 
empire contains within its own limits every thing 
necessary for the welfare of her people ; whilst the 
difficulties which her deserts, her mountains, and 
her seas, interpose, would prevent hostile aggres- 
sion. It was remembered, and the fact was quoted 
by Mr. Walker, in an able paper containing a pro- 
position for the cultivation of tea in the Nepaul 
Hills in 1834-, that the trade between Russia and 
China was interrupted in the reign of the Empress 
Catherine. This interruption caused the cessation 
of the importation from Russia to China of woollens 
and calicoes, and the industry of England supplied 
the want. The empress was first obliged to sue for 
a renewal of the intercourse, after a lapse of seven 
years. The Emperor Kein Lung replied, in a 
despatch, which is said more to have mortified the 
empress than any untoward occurrence during her 
reign, by calling the Russians beasts, dogs, and 
animals ; but added, that as he wished to be at peace 
with all the creatures upon the earth, if the trade 
was necessary to the Russians, it should be renewed. 
The Russians, too glad to avail themselves of the 
trade, were obliged to submit to receive, in ex- 
change for their Siberian furs, the mouldy tea, mil- 
dewed calicoes, musty rhubarbs, which had been 



AND MORAL EFFECTS, 65 

collected at Kiachta during the suspension ; their 
remonstrances meeting with the reply, that as these 
goods had been brought for them from an immense 
distance, they must take them or none. 

There is no region of this earth that demands a 
more thorough investigation of its capabilities than 
does that magnificent portion of Asia, which this 
country has, by the exertion of its prowess in 
arts and in arms, rendered subservient to her pros- 
perity. Every day developes further powers for 
the use of man ; a new era has dawned upon India ; 
industry and ingenuity will speedily avail themselves 
of the mighty resources which she presents ; and the 
men of science, who are now investigating the agri- 
cultural produce of that immense territory, will, ere 
long, demonstrate to what a state of perfection may 
be brought some of those materials which have re* 
mained unexplored or forgotten. Amongst the 
vast number of subjects which were canvassed, and 
again neglected, at the end of the last century, was 
the possibility of introducing the tea- plant into 
India, and the practicability of preparing it in such 
a manner as to obtain supplies equal to the demand 
in the European markets. Sir Joseph Banks made 
a communication to the Court of Directors of the 
Honourable East India Company in 1778, and it 
was forwarded to Bengal. In the year 1793, when 
Lord Macartney was ambassador to China, he 
transmitted some plants from China to Bengal, his 
excellency having been informed that there were 
districts adapted for their cultivation. 

Dr. David Scott sent, in 1826, from Munipore, 

F 



66 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

specimens of the leaves of a shrub which he be- 
lieved to be real tea. Mr. Corbyn, the highly in- 
telligent editor of The India Review, and Journal 
of Foreign Sciences and the Arts, found in the year 
1827, at Sandoway in Arracan, a tea-tree, which 
appeared to him quite as fine as those in the neigh- 
bouring country of China. He observed it abun- 
dant on heights and in valleys. He noticed that 
one of the most luxurious petit dishes of the San- 
dowayese is a preparation of the tea leaf. They 
procure a considerable number of the leaves, and 
steep them in a pan for some time, after which they 
are beaten into balls ; with these are mixed oil and 
garlic. He forwarded a specimen of the leaves, 
and a plant in its natural soil, for the governor- 
general's gardens at Barrackpore. His report was 
at that time considered to be of sufficient import- 
ance to induce Lord Amherst to place it on the 
public records, and to forward a copy for the Ho- 
nourable the Board of Directors. In the year 1834, 
for the first time, the subject of producing tea in 
India became the subject of the consideration of 
the Government there; and Lord William Ben- 
tinck laid before his Council two memoirs, the one 
which his lordship had received from Mr. Walker 
of London, the other from Dr. Wallich, the super- 
intendent of the Botanical Garden near Calcutta. 
In February of that year, the Committee, which con- 
sisted of eleven English and two native gentlemen, 
was formed to collect information as to the soils and 
situations best adapted to the tea-plant ; and that 
Committee deputed their secretary, G. J. Gordon, 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 67 

Esq., to ascertain the nature of the soils in China, 
to collect tea-plants and seeds, and to procure a few- 
Chinese cultivators and tea manufacturers. Of his 
mission that gentleman has published a very inter- 
esting journal, the result of an attempted ascent of 
the river Min, to visit the tea-plantations of the 
Fokien provinces ; his party, however, met with so 
much opposition, that they were compelled to re- 
turn. An excursion to the tea-hills, which produce 
the tea known under the designation of Ankoy tea, 
was more successful, in company with Messrs. 
Gutzlaff, Rider, and Nicholson ; and he had oppor- 
tunities of gaining information of considerable im- 
portance. 

In the year 1834 the Bengal Government ap- 
pointed a Committee for the purpose of submitting 
a plan for the introduction and cultivation of the 
tea-plant. This Committee commenced its oper- 
ations by issuing a circular, which contained a ge- 
neral outline of such information as it had been 
enabled to collect, relating to the climate and to the 
soil of China most congenial to the growth of the 
tea-plant, and they requested to be put in possession 
of such knowledge as had as yet been obtained of 
any districts in India which resembled the tea-dis- 
tricts of China. A letter from Dr. H. Falconer, su- 
perintendent of the Botanical Garden at Serampore, 
to G. J. Gordon, Esq., the secretary of the Commit- 
tee, was published in the Journal of the Asiatic 
Society for that year, in which he pointed out the 
aptitude of the Himalayan range for tea culture ; he 
explained that, although there was no part of the 
f 2 



68 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

Company's territories in India that could supply all 
the conditions of the tea-districts of China in re- 
spect of climate, yet there are situations which ap- 
proach it so nearly, as strongly to bear out the con- 
clusion that tea may be so successfully produced 
as to be an object of commercial importance; he 
thought that the plains of India were not adapted 
for it, for the mean annual heat of the climate, from 
30°N.lat. down to the parallel of Calcutta, was much 
beyond that of the tea cultivation in China. In ad- 
dition to an excessive summer heat, with either hot 
"winds or a close scorching air during the day, they 
have a barely temperate winter, and heavy periodi- 
cal rains. Though some Chinese fruits, such as 
the leche, the loquat, the wampee, succeed, yet the 
tea-plant requires a greater cold to thrive in. He 
thought there was a great similarity between the 
climate of the tea-districts of China and that of the 
lower heights, or the outer ridges of the Himalayas, 
in the parallel of 29° 30', the chief difference perhaps 
being more moisture in this country. To his super- 
intendence, after his very able report, was com- 
mitted the charge of some tea- farms in the localities 
which he pointed out ; and results of the most satis- 
factory kind were obtained, and anticipations of the 
most sanguine success were indulged in. 

Whilst a series of very important investigations 
and trials were going forward, a discovery took 
place, which, in the language of the Agricultural 
Society of Calcutta, in an address to Lord William 
Bentinck, " we do not hesitate to pronounce as one 
of a most interesting and important nature, as con- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 69 

nected with the commercial and agricultural interests 
of this empire. We allude to the existence of the 
real and genuine tea-plant of China, indigenous with- 
in the Honourable Company's dominions in Upper 
Assam. This shrub is no longer to be looked upon 
as a plant of doubtful introduction. It exists, already- 
planted by the hand of Nature, through a vast ex- 
tent of territory in Upper Assam, bordering on the 
Chinese and Burmese provinces of Shore and 
Yunnan, where it is at present cultivated for its leaf, 
both for consumption and exportation." 

The indefatigable researches of Captain Jenkins, 
the political agent, and Lieutenant Charlton, proved 
that the tea-shrub was indigenous to Upper Assam, 
which had been conquered from the Burmese ; and 
that it was found from Sadeya and Beesa to the 
Chinese frontier province of Yunnan, where the 
shrub is cultivated for the sake of the leaf. They 
forwarded samples of the fruit and leaves. 

The Tea Committee, knowing that several species 
of Camellia were native in the mountains of Hin- 
dostan, and that these were indigenous to the north- 
eastern frontier provinces, were disposed to expect 
that the tree which had excited the attention of these 
gentlemen would prove to be some species of Ca- 
mellia ; but the examination of the specimens 
which were placed before them fully convinced 
them that it was the identical tea of China, the ex- 
clusive source of all the varieties and shades of the 
tea of commerce. The Supreme Government then 
came to a determination of having the tracts of 
country producing the plant properly explored. The 
f 3 



70 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

officers selected for this interesting object were Dr. 
Wallich and Mr. Griffith as botanists, and Mr. Mac- 
lelland as geologist. They were joined by Mr. 
Bruce as guide, who had acquired an intimate 
knowledge of the chiefs in whose country the re- 
searches were to be carried on. On the 29th of 
August, 1835, the Deputation left Calcutta, and ar- 
rived at Sadeya, the frontier station of Upper As- 
sam, early in January, 1836. On the eleventh of 
the month they quitted Sadeya for the tea-tracts. 
They arrived at Kufoo on the 15th ; on the follow- 
ing day they, for the first time, saw the tea in its 
native state. They found it at a distance of about 
two miles to the south of the village, in a jungle, 
its extent scarcely equalling 200 yards square 
measurement: to the eastward it terminated ab- 
ruptly ; in other directions it ceased by degrees. 
The ground was intersected with numberless small 
ravines : there were curious looking mounds, chiefly 
round the bases of the larger trees or the clumps of 
bamboos. The soil was light, loose, and of a decided 
yellow ; the situation was low and damp. It was in 
this locality that the Deputation observed trees of 
higher stature than those which they found in other 
stations. There were five places at which the tea- 
plant was examined in its native state: they were 
comprehended in a tract of country, situated between 
the parallels of about 27° 25' and 24° 45' north lati- 
tude, and 96° 94/ of east longitude. 

Mr. Griffith, in his very valuable report, has enu- 
merated the localities, and described their ex- 
tent with great precision. From this appears 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 71 

the incorrectness of the term which has been 
applied to them, of tea-forests. The tea-plant 
in none of these places exceeded the size of a small 
tree, and almost invariably occurred as an ordinary- 
sized shrub : the term patches, as applied by Ellis, 
is more descriptive of their appearance, than any 
other. They are all clothed with excessively thick 
tree-jungle, the trees being of a moderate size. So 
thick are these jungles, that Mr. Griffith doubts 
whether the tea-plants, not even excepting the 
arborescent ones, ever receive the direct rays of the 
sun. The tea seems to struggle for existence 
amongst many other trees, and becomes tall and 
slender, with most of its branches high up. All 
the tea-plants in Assam have been found to grow 
and to thrive best near small rivers and pools of 
water, and in those places where, after heavy falls 
of rain, large quantities of water have accumulated, 
and in their struggle to get free, have cut out for 
themselves numerous small channels. Mr. Bruce, 
in his account of the manufacture of the black tea, 
as now practised at Sudeya, has explained this by 
means of a diagram. The Deputation left the 
country on the 9th of March, after having col- 
lected the most satisfactory information, which was 
laid before the proper authorities. The consequence 
of these inquiries was a determination on the part 
of the Government to cultivate the tea, and to com- 
mit to Mr. Bruce the superintendence and complete 
management of the tea-tracts. He has furnished a 
map of all the tracts which he has discovered : there 
are many on the south side of the Debree river, 
f 4 



72 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

called the Muttuck country, which appears to be 
one vast tea-district, its whole soil being adapted for 
the growth of the shrub. The inhabitants, ignorant 
of its value, have cut it down, and converted the 
tracts into paddy ground : but they have now learnt 
to prize it ; and when they bring to the super- 
intendent a branch from any new tract, they are 
rewarded. This country belongs to an independent 
native Rajah, but is under the control of the British 
authority. Some of the tracts are in the Singpho 
country, considerably within the British boundary. 
The tea-tracts in the Singpho country are much 
larger than those in the Muttuck. The inhabitants 
have long used tea, and profess to be good judges 
of it : they drink it, but prepare it differently from 
the Chinese. They pluck the young and tender 
leaves, and dry them a little in the sun ; some put 
them out in the dew, and then again in the sun, 
three successive days; others only after a little 
drying put them into hot pans, turn them about until 
quite hot, and then place them into the hollow of a 
bamboo, and drive the whole down with a stick, 
holding and turning the bamboo over the fire alt 
the time until it is full ; then tie the end up 
with leaves,^ and hang the bamboo up in some 
smoky place in the hut : thus prepared, the tea 
will keep good for years. All the tea-tracts are in 
the valleys. 

Few subjects are more deeply interesting, or 
involve more important considerations, although 
not immediately evident to common observation, 
than the laws which apportion the distribution of 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 73 

the different tribes of vegetables over the face of 
the globe. The influence which temperature, hu- 
midity, light, elevation, aspect, and soil, have 
upon these beings is such, that, without some know- 
ledge of them, the naturalist cannot estimate the 
value of such a discovery, as the existence of a 
particular vegetable in any district. If it can be 
proved that the greater number of these causes, 
which exercise an immediate influence upon the 
growth of plants generally, are nearly similar in 
two situations, we should draw the conclusion that 
a particular vegetable of the same species would be 
endued with the same characteristic qualities, if 
grown on either of these situations; an examina- 
tion, therefore, of the vegetation with which the 
tea-plant is associated, both in China and in Assam, 
becomes most interesting. The data upon which this 
is founded are unfortunately somewhat meagre. 
Mr. Griffith, however, has admirably availed him- 
self of the materials that have been placed in his 
hands ; and although much requires to be filled up, 
yet a fair conclusion may be drawn, that the Flora 
of Upper Assam approaches to a considerable 
extent to that of certain portions of China ; he has 
shown the singularity of the Flora of Upper Assam, 
which is of such a nature and such an extent as 
not to be met with elsewhere in India, at the same 
elevation, even as far north as the thirty-first 
parallel. He has given a list of 780 species for 
Assam, and 623 for China. The chief features of 
the Flora of either are tropical, and the singularity of 
. either consists in the existence of forms in tolerable 



74 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

frequency, which could not have been expected 
from the latitude, and the small elevation above the 
sea. It is singularly remarkable, that of the eight 
genera adduced by Dr. Royle in proof of the simi- 
larity of the Flora of the mid region of the Hima- 
layas with that of the central provinces of China, 
five are found in the plains of Assam. Neither 
the climate of China, nor that of Upper Assam, is 
yet sufficiently known to us to enable us to form a 
comparison between them. In Assam there would 
seem to be great humidity : the rains are of long 
continuance ; they commence in March, and last 
till about the middle of October. Altogether we 
may fairly, however, draw the inference, that a 
very striking similarity in humidity, temperature, 
soil, and in all the leading features, exists between 
the province of Upper Assam and Keangnan and 
Kiangsoo, two districts of China most remarkable 
for the production of tea. 

Mr. Bruce has raised several plantations, and 
given a very interesting narrative of his proceed- 
ings, and of the effects of sun and shade. About 
the middle of March he brought three or four 
thousand young plants from their native soil in 
the Muttuck country, about eight days' journey, 
and planted them in tree-jungles, eight and ten 
close together, in deep shade. From 400 to 500 
were planted in different places, some miles from 
each other; in the latter end of May he visited 
them, and found them as fresh as if they had been 
in their native soil, throwing out fresh leaves. As 
these thrived so well, he brought from the same . 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 75 

place 17j000 more young plants, and planted them 
in deep shade ; they threw out new leaves and 
flourished as much as could be expected, although 
the soil was nothing like that from whence they 
were taken — in which point alone the places differ. 
He converted a jungle into a tea-garden, on account 
of the Government ; where there was formerly one 
tea-plant, there were upwards of a dozen, the new 
shoots from the old cuttings forming a fine bush, 
and showing a great contrast to some of the original 
trees, which he permitted to stand, with slender 
trunks and a few branches only at the top. This 
tract or garden has yielded more tea than twelve 
times the same space of ground in the jungles would 
have done. He found that, as the plants that had 
been cut down grew up again, the leaves acquired 
a yellowish tinge from their exposure to the sun, 
and were much thicker than those in the jungles ; 
but this yellow tinge wore off, and the leaves 
became as green as those in the shade. As this 
tract answered so well by being cut down and set 
fire to, he tried the same experiment upon another 
tract close by ; and it came up to what he expected 
of it, eight to twelve new shoots having risen from 
the old stumps in the place of one. It is now a very 
fine tea-tract. Not knowing how this plan of cut- 
ting down might answer eventually, and how it might 
affect the plants, he took another tract in hand, 
allowed all the tea-plants to remain, but cut down 
all the other trees, large and small, that gave them 
shade, piled them up, and what he could not set fire 
to, he threw into the water-courses. These tea- 



76 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

plants did well, but still each plant remains single, 
consequently has not many leaves, and is much in 
the same condition as when under shade. He has 
not had sufficient time to show what effect the sun 
may have on the leaves, and the tea made from 
them. This tract had a curious appearance, the 
plants appearing hardly strong enough to support 
themselves now they are deprived of their friendly 
shade. He has some other tracts under experiment ; 
some in which he permitted the jungle-trees to grow, 
and only cleared away the brushwood and other 
small trees, to admit the rays of the sun ; others with 
very little shade. He has cut off branches of the 
tea-plants and laid them horizontally in the ground, 
with an inch or two of earth on them, and these 
threw out numerous shoots the whole length of the 
branch ; other branches were simply pushed into 
the earth, and they have grown. This was all in the 
shade, nor does he think they would answer so well 
in the sun. 

Several samples of two sorts of black tea, which 
had been prepared from the leaves of the shrub 
discovered in Upper Assam, were received in Eng- 
land in August, 1838, and in the following November 
an additional supply was received. 

It appears that this consignment arrived in Cal- 
cutta on the last day of January, 1838. In a letter, 
dated the 20th March following, the Tea Committee 
observed that, " owing to a deficiency in the 
original packing, and the great degree of dampness 
to which the boxes had been exposed during the 
passage from Assam, a considerable portion of the 



AND MORAL EFFECTS, 77 

tea was either wholly spoiled, or so much deteri- 
orated, that no process could have restored it to 
any thing like a fair quality. They had, therefore, 
rejected all that portion as unfit to be sent home, at 
least, with the present supply, deeming it a matter 
of primary importance that the value of the first 
samples transmitted to Europe should not be dimin- 
ished by any thing that might add to the many 
disadvantages under which they must necessarily 
arrive at a destination, where they would, in all 
probability, have to be subjected to the severe test 
of examination by the first tea inspectors in 
London. 

" The Committee begged most particularly to 
urge on the consideration of Government, that not 
only were the plants, from which the leaves were 
gathered, still in their original wild and uncultivated 
state, but the details of the various processes em- 
ployed in preparing and transmitting the tea, must . 
obviously have laboured under the many and 
serious difficulties and obstacles of a first attempt, 
but which may reasonably be expected will be 
diminished and progressively overcome, as further 
trials are made. Besides which, it ought to be 
borne in mind that, strange as it may appear, it is 
by no means settled whether it is not actually the 
green sort that has been prepared in the fashion of 
black tea ; a point which can only be satisfactorily 
determined when the green tea manufacturers are 
set at work in Assam." 

The appearance which is presented by the Assam 
tea is that of a large leaf, jet black, or dark brown, 



78 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

much curled ; there are many pak-ho points in it ; 
some stalks are found in it ; its flavour very much 
resembles that of a burnt Caper Souchong ; it has a 
delicate and agreeable smell ; it makes a very plea- 
sant infusion, of a deeper colour than ordinary 
Souchong ; it has every quality that belongs to a 
good, sound, unadulterated tea. There cannot be 
the slightest doubt of its being the genuine produce 
of the real tea-plant ; and when all the facts are 
known relating to the preparation of tea, we shall 
have introduced into this country many varieties 
obtained from the farms which are now in cultiva- 
tion ; the sample already imported holding forth 
the promise of an excellence which will yet be 
obtained. 

This lately acquired territory of Assam is situ- 
ated at the extreme north-east frontier of Bengal ; 
it is almost in immediate contact with the empires 
of China and Ava, from each of which it is separated 
by a narrow belt of mountainous country, inhabited 
by barbarous tribes of independent savages, and 
which may be traversed in ten or twelve days. 
From this mountain range navigable branches of 
the great rivers of Nankin, of Cambodia, of Marta- 
ban, of Ava, and of Assam, derive their origin, 
and appear designed by nature as the great high- 
ways of commerce between the nations of Ultra 
Gangetic Asia. Mr. M'Cosh has contributed to 
the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal an in- 
teresting paper, compiled from original manuscripts 
placed in his hands by Captain Jenkins, the in- 
defatigable agent to the Governor-General on the 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 79 

north-east frontier, and from the letters of Major 
White, political agent for Assam. He .observes 
that this beautiful tract of country, though thinly 
populated by straggling hordes, and allowed to be 
profitless in primeval jungle, or run to waste with 
luxuriance of vegetation, enjoys all the qualities 
requisite for rendering it one of the finest in the 
world. Its climate is cold, healthy, and congenial 
to European constitutions ; its numerous crystal 
streams abound in gold dust and masses of the 
solid metal ; its mountains are pregnant with pre- 
cious stones and silver ; its atmosphere is perfumed 
with tea growing wild and luxuriantly ; and its soil 
is so well adapted to all kinds of agricultural pur- 
poses, that it may be converted into one continued 
garden of silk, cotton, coffee, sugar, as well as 
tea, over an extent of many miles. This valu- 
able tract is inhabited by various races, some of 
them acknowledge the authority of the Burmese, 
and some that of China. The Chinese have long 
carried on a commercial intercourse with the 
Singphos of Assam, and it would even appear that 
many thousand maunds of tea are manufactured at 
a place called Polong, and exported to China. 
Mung-kung, the chief depot of Chinese trade, 
situated on the Mugaum river, is from fifteen to 
twenty days' journey only from Assam. 

Amongst the recent discoveries made in the 
remarkable province of Assam, and which lead us 
to believe that it may rival, in its productions, the 
Celestial Empire, are six varieties of silk- worms, 
three of which are different from the well-known 



80 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

Bombyx Mori, and from the two others indige- 
nous to India, which are worked in Bengal. India 
may therefore yet provide Europe with a material 
which may be made to supply the place of cotton 
and woollen cloth ; and the disappointment, which 
has so often been expressed by so many highly 
ingenious men, may yet be obviated by the produc- 
tion of a silk, which may vie with any that could 
be brought to market. A communication on the 
silk-worms and silks of Assam by Mr. Hugon, and 
another upon the indigenous silk-worms of India 
by Dr. Helper, which was read at two meetings 
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, lead to 
hopes that Assam may yet be found one of the 
most valuable acquisitions to the British empire. 
Still further to assist in the development of the 
vegetable treasures of the province, supplies of 
coal can be obtained. Three specimens of 
Assamese coal have been transmitted to Calcutta, 
which turned out to be of a very respectable 
quality ; they burn with a rich flame, being highly 
bituminous, and therefore suitable for steam- 
engine fires. There are four places in which large 
supplies are found. On the south bank of the 
Burhampootur river they are easily conveyed to 
the neighbouring streams, so that steam navigation 
may be carried on upon a great scale, and thus 
convey to the most distant points the natural pro- 
ductions of this highly favoured spot. All these 
points are of the deepest moment to this country; 
and deserve the most zealous investigation from 
a Government, whose object it must be to dif- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 81 

fuse knowledge and truth throughout the civilised: 
world. 

The tea-plant being distributed so extensively- 
over large portions of Upper Assam, there can be 
no doubt that an ample supply for European con-^ 
sumption can be obtained thence. Even the pre- 
sent tea-tracts may be enlarged almost to any. 
extent, from the numerous seedlings found amongst 
the tea-plants, from the great number of seeds that 
can be collected annually, and from the number of 
cuttings that may be planted. There appears in 
one district a formidable enemy to combat with, 
there is scarcely a plant that has not some pa- 
rasitic insect living upon it, and destroying the. 
hopes of the cultivator; thus the tobacco often 
becomes the source of disappointment to the 
planter, for a worm attacks it in the month of 
July, and in an incredible short space of time 
destroys a whole field of plants, and his inroads are 
almost unknown until the mischief is complete. 
The hop-grower, too, has many such difficulties to 
encounter; his plantation is often ruined by si 
"fly/' which commences its attacks early in the 
spring, followed somewhat later by a winged fly, 
which not only commits a series of ravages, but is 
the precursor of another, which appears not to eat* 
but to poison the leaf. The enemy of the Assam 
tea-plant, it would appear from Mr. Bruce's nar- 
rative, has some singular characteristics: he had 
sown numerous seeds at Sudeya,' in the sun ; they 
appeared to thrive very well for the first year, but 
an insect, which he thinks is called a mole-cricket, 

G 



82 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

nipped off the young and tender leaves, carried 
them into a hole under ground near the root of the 
plant, the consequence of which was that he did 
not succeed in rearing a single plant. This may be 
attributed to the exposure of the plant to the rays 
of the sun ; for, he observes, that he sowed some 
seeds in his garden under the shade of trees and 
bushes, where they succeeded remarkably well. 

The idea of Auguste de Candolle is, that the Bur- 
mese do not drink the tea of their own frontier, 
but import from China what they use ; and he 
employs this as an argument against the excellence 
of the Assamese tea, which he says is used as a 
pickle ; this is founded upon the valuable evidence 
of Mr. Crawfurd, who observes, " In the Burman 
empire they consume very little tea, besides what 
they grow themselves ; this last, although a genuine 
tea botanically, is a peculiar variety. The Bur- 
mese mix with it oil of sesamum and garlic, and 
give it to their guests as a token of welcome. 
There is a very large consumption of it, and it is a 
considerable branch of trade." De Candolle, how- 
ever, although he thinks the Assamese tea will 
prove of inferior quality, does not consider the dis- 
covery of less importance to Great Britain, and 
acknowledges the necessity of paying every atten- 
tion to its cultivation. 

The tea of Assam may be obtained at a cheap 
rate, when once the establishments for its growth 
and preparation are placed upon a proper footing. 
The land is of easy cultivation, and as the neces- 
saries of life are purchased at a cheap rate, labour 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 83 

will not be expensive. The cultivators will, of 
course, at the outset, be obtained from China ; but 
as they have no objection to give their instructions 
to others, or to answer candidly any questions upon 
the manufacture in China, there will be no difficulty 
in instructing labourers capable of undertaking the 
general and particular management of the plant- 
ations. The facility of transmitting the tea to Cal- 
cutta is another striking feature, in the advantages 
which Assam presents ; and although during the 
water carriage down the Burhampootur, a consign- 
ment of tea, owing to some faulty arrangement, was 
damaged, the river affords means of transport, which 
can be easily rendered available. One of the pe- 
culiar features of the lower and central divisions 
consists in tracts of sands stretched along the 
Burhampootur, called " churs :" their breadth in 
some places is from eight to ten miles ; they are, 
throughout the whole of their extent, clothed with 
dense grass-jungle. These grasses are mostly of a 
gigantic size, some of them often measuring twenty 
feet in height ; they consist of four or five species 
of Saccharum and a species of Arundo. As the 
genus Saccharum preponderates over the others, 
and is, perhaps, during the efflorescence, the most 
conspicuous of the order, the appearance of the 
churs during the flowering of these plants must 
be very striking. Mr. Griffith in a valuable paper 
has given a useful list of the plants collected 
from Upper Assam, and pointed out such tracts of 
sand and belts of jungle as he had become ac- 
quainted with in the neighbourhood of Sadeya, near 
g 2 



84 -TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

the confluence of the Dihong with the Burham- 
pootur. 

The Tea Committee arrived at the same conclusion 
with Mr. Bruce that the indigenous tea of the 
Singpho country was of the green tea species. The 
circumstance that seemed to weigh principally with 
Mr. Bruce appears to have been the quality of pre- 
venting sleep attributed to it. The Committee, how- 
ever, state, that they were predisposed to do so 
from the knowledge, that in point of locality and of 
soil there is a correspondence between those, in 
which the Singpho plant is produced and the green 
tea, but not with those in which the black tea-plant 
is found in China ; at the same time that a different 
species from that seen in the plains, and corre-, 
sponding in description with the black species, is 
averred to grow in the neighbouring hills. The tea, 
however, was dried in the fashion of black tea, and 
arrived in Calcutta under the denomination of Paho 
and Souchong. Of course many were the difficulties 
to be contended with in the first experiment: the 
plants from which the leaves were gathered were in 
their wild and uncultivated state ; and the prepara- 
tion was managed with great care, under the auspices 
of Mr. Bruce, over a nicely regulated coal fire, 
covered with ashes in baskets purposely made, having 
the form of two inverted cones with their ends 
truncated, as minutely described and figured by 
Mr. Bruce in his memoir, a portion of which has 
been republished in England. The Tea Committee 
express their obligations to Dr. Wallich, their se- 
cretary, for the skill and exceeding trouble he took 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 85 

in the despatch of the consignment. This distin- 
guished botanist having learnt that it was customary 
in China to pay great attention, lest any cargoes 
consisting of articles of strong flavour might 
be likely to impregnate the delicate and fugacious 
aroma of the tea, and that they even planked off the 
spaces allotted for the chests, recommended this 
caution. The Assam tea was embarked on board the 
Calcutta, Captain Bentley ; and as ox-hides had for 
a long time formed part of the cargo of all home- 
ward bound vessels, measures were taken for the 
preservation of the tea, and for the introduction of 
it to the East India Company at home, in a perfect 
and unimpaired condition. 

Anxious to obtain for the tea which had been 
imported into England a proper reception, and at 
the same time to give as great a number of persons 
as possible an opportunity of judging its real merits, 
the East India Company transmitted samples to all 
parts of the empire, and it was distributed amongst 
scientific persons, and individuals distinguished 
either by their station or by the estimation in 
which they were held. The great majority of 
those who tested its merits expressed their opinions 
in writing; and the consequence has been a collec- 
tion of a mass of favourable evidence, which has 
been carefully preserved, and will most probably be 
published amongst the parliamentary documents 
which will be laid before the House of Commons. 
At the January tea sales the East India Company 
submitted for competition the last importation, 
consisting of eight chests, each containing 320 lbs. 
g 3 



86 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

The novelty of the supply excited great attention 
amongst the brokers and tea-dealers, who were na- 
turally anxious to obtain some portion of the tea. A 
competition of an unusual character was carried on, 
which raised the price far beyond the most sanguine 
expectation that had been entertained. Although the 
tea was known to have been slightly deteriorated by 
the inattention during its transit, and by the firing it 
had gone through at Calcutta, it was generally ac- 
knowledged to be equal to the ordinary Souchong 
of the market, and it was expected that a price some- 
what higher would be given for it, as an article of 
curiosity ; but such was the anxiety manifested to 
get possession even of a chest, that from 16s. to 34s. 
was the selling price ; and it afterwards appeared that 
the whole had become the property of Captain 
Pidding, the proprietor of the Howqua Mixture, 
who was detertermined to be the means of spreading 
wide this novel exportation from a British colony ; 
he has since distributed small samples, for which 
the sum of 2s. 6d. was charged. The extraordinary 
impetus given to this sale has prevented the East 
India Company from ascertaining the marketable 
value of the commodity ; but it has been of infinite 
importance, by drawing public attention to the 
subject. 

The Dutch have been anxious to naturalise the 
tea-plant at Java, and have formed plantations at 
Bentenzong and at Garvet, where they have been 
successful, and have proved that Java can produce 
tea in sufficient quantity, if proper means be taken 
for its cultivation. Their present plantation has 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 87 

been reared from seeds obtained from Japan ; but 
the Committee of Agriculture has sent for some seeds 
from China, and is using every exertion to improve 
the quality and quantity of the growth. Mr. Jacob- 
son, the inspector of the cultivation, has the most 
sanguine expectations that he will be enabled to 
import tea, prepared precisely as is done in China, 
and quite equal in all its qualities. This gentleman 
has shown the greatest zeal and anxiety to carry 
into effect this object : at the hazard of his life he 
obtained from China a number of experienced 
labourers, who have been employed at the various 
farms. He has likewise imported some millions 
of tea-plants, with machines and tools in use in 
China. The teas sent to Holland have been spoken 
of as equal in flavour to any that have been im- 
ported from Canton : their qualities have been va- 
rious, some black and others green — samples of 
Souchong and Pekoe amongst them. The different 
plantations have yielded different qualities, some of 
them much better than others. Some months since 
there was a public sale in Amsterdam of 218 chests 
of Java tea, which brought very high prices. The 
Pekoe was sold for 500 cents per lb., and Souchong 
from 265 to 300 cents. The newspaper called the 
Handelsblad observes, — " It is true that the high 
prices must be considered rather as a proof of the 
interest taken in the new production of our colonies, 
which every body wishes to possess, than as a cri- 
terion of the value of the tea. We are, however, 
happy to learn, that competent judges consider this 
Java tea to be excellent ; and affirm that it not only 
g 4 



88 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

is very nearly equal to that of China, but that many 
of the sorts sold there were of a very fine kind, 
such as are very rarely sent from China." The suc- 
cess that has followed upon the plantations in Java 
ought to be a stimulus to exertion in India; for 
Java does not offer such advantageous circum- 
stances for cultivation as does Assam. The persons 
who have superintended the introduction into the 
former country have exerted themselves to import 
annually the choicest seeds, and to procure culti- 
vators and factors who had a thorough knowledge 
of all the points connected with its growth and pre- 
paration. With industry, zeal, and attention, there is 
no doubt that the Assam plant will be found su- 
perior to any that may be imported into any other 
climate from seed ; for Nature has done that which 
art in vain attempts to imitate, and man has only to 
reap the benefits which she has planted for him. 



* Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast ; 
Let fall the curtain, wheel the sofa round ; 
And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn 
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups 
That cheer, but not inebriate, wait on each, 
So let us welcome peaceful evening in." 

Thus sang one of our most admired poets, who was 
feelingly alive to the charms of social life ; but, alas ! 
for the domestic happiness of many of our family 
circles, this meal has lost its character, and many of 
those innovations which despotic fashion has intro- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 89 

duced, have changed one of the most agreeable of our 
daily enjoyments. It is, indeed, a question amongst 
the devotees to the tea-table, whether the bubbling 
urn has been practically an improvement upon our 
habits ; it has driven from us the old national kettle, 
once the pride of the fire-side. The urn may fairly 
be called the offspring of indolence ; it has deprived 
us, too, of many of those felicitous opportunities of 
which the gallant forefathers of the present race 
availed themselves, to render them amiable in the 
eyes of the fair sex, when presiding over the dis- 
tribution 

" Of the Soumblo, the Imperial tea, 
Names not unknown, and sanative Bohea." 

* The consequence of this injudicious change is, that 
one great enjoyment is lost to the tea-drinker — that 
which consists in having the tea infused in water 
actually hot, and securing an equal temperature 
when a fresh supply is required. Such, too, is what 
those who have preceded us would have called the 
degeneracy of the period in which we live, that now 
the tea-making is carried on in the housekeeper's 
room, or in the kitchen, — - 

{{ For monstrous novelty, and strange disguise, 
We sacrifice our tea, till household joys 
And comforts cease." 

What can be more delightful than those social 
days described by Tate, the poet-laureate ? — 

" When in discourse of Nature's mystic powers 
And noblest themes we. pass the well-spent hours, 



90 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

Whilst all around the Virtues — sacred band, 
And Jistening Graces, pleased attendants stand. 
Thus our tea conversations we employ, 
Where, with delight, instructions we enjoy, 
Quaffing, without the waste of time or wealth, 
The sovereign drink of pleasure and of health." 

The first allusions to the Chiai Catai of the Chi- 
nese are to be found in the voyages and travels by Ba- 
tista Ramusio, in some observations upon the books 
of Marco Polo, in MafFei, and in Giovanni Botero, 
who in his treatise on the causes of the magnificence 
and greatness of cities, uses language to this effect : 
— " The Chinese possess an herb from which they 
press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink 
instead of wine ; it also preserves their health, 
and frees them from all those evils which the immo- 
derate use of wine produces." After these authors 
a whole list of writers may be named, who mentioned 
the subject incidentally. Amongst these, the most 
remarkable were Linschoten, Texeira, Jarric, Tri- 
gault, Caspar Bauhin, Bontius, Olearius, Mandeslo, 
Moriset, Varenius. A catalogue of these authors, 
and of more modern authorities, has lately been col- 
lected with great industry and personal attention to 
the contents of their volumes by a young student 
of great merit at Utrecht, Adrian Bergsma. Not 
satisfied with a mere enumeration of authors, he 
has marked in his little essay all such books as 
he had consulted, and given the page of the 
volume in the best edition, in which may be found 
the subject to which he refers. To Ksempfer, who 
resided two years in Japan, and who published 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 91 

in 1726 two volumes, which have been translated 
into most languages, is to be looked as the best 
authority on the most important points, more parti- 
cularly for the best engraving that had been given 
of the shrub before it had been seen in Europe. 
In the Acta Hafniensia is to be found the first deli- 
neation of the tree; but it had been taken from a 
dried specimen ; and however accurate, it furnishes 
us with but a faint idea of the living plant. Bontius 
in 1648 published a narrative of his voyage with 
Admiral Matelief in the East Indies and China, in 
the shape of a quarto, distinct from the two volumes 
of which this account had formed a part ; and it 
contained the representation of the plant. Plu- 
kenet published a better engraving ; Breynius one 
still more perfect : but the first authentic figure is 
that of Tillseus, drawn from the one introduced by 
Linnaeus. Besides the # writers who mentioned the 
subject in travels and in botanical works, there were 
many eminent men, whose attention was drawn to it 
by the increasing taste of the people of Holland, of 
Germany, and of England, for tea. Great curiosity 
was excited by the learned to obtain specimens of 
the various parts of the plant. A report existed 
that there was one in England, the property of an 
East India captain, who kept it for some years, and 
refused to part with either cuttings or layers. Its 
certain introduction, however, was reserved for the 
greatest genius the world has yet produced ; one 
who combined industry with sagacity — who was the 
most attentive observer and recorder of every thing 
in Nature, and who has done more for man than any 



92 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

who have preceded or succeeded him — who has led 
the way in knowledge, from whom, at this hour, 
society is reaping the richest treasures. 

It was in the year 1763 that Linnaeus had the 
satisfaction of receiving from China a living tea- 
plant. The delight with which he hailed the 
stranger, is painted in that interesting diary which 
he has left us, and which gives us such an insight 
into the enthusiastic character of that illustrious 
man. His words are, u At last, Linnaeus received 
tea alive from China, which he had tried to succeed 
in for so many years, and which nobody before had 
been able to procure, as neither the seeds nor the 
root would bear the voyage. Linnaeus desired that 
the moment before the ship set sail from China, the 
seeds should be put in earth, and watered as a hot 
bed. God blessed him even in this point, that he 
was the first who had the satisfaction to see tea 
imported into Europe alive; it was by means of 
Ekeberg. He looked upon nothing to be of more 
importance, than to shut the gate through which 
all the silver went out of Europe." In the volumes, 
called Amcenitates Academicm, seven of which 
were published by Linnaeus himself, is the disser- 
tation by Tillaeus, entitled Potus Thece. It was 
at the period at which it was published the most 
complete history of the tea-shrub ; he describes it, 
gives the synonyms, the mode of preparing the 
leaves, its sensible qualities, its virtues; but like- 
wise states, that it is hurtful in some states of 
body, such as palsy, colic, and ophthalmia: he 
quotes the authority upon these points of Kalm, 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 93 

who declared that, until the introduction of tea 
into North America, carious teeth and debilitated 
stomachs were unknown. He concludes this essay,, 
♦which has been the foundation of most of those 
that have since appeared, by a view of the circum- 
stances which might promote its naturalisation in 
other countries. The death of the plant that was 
in the possession of Linnaeus was recorded ; but 
the example of its introduction led to care and 
attention on the part of others. Accustomed as we 
now are to see it occasionally in our conservatories, 
we can judge with difficulty of the rapture which 
Linnseus felt : nor can we enter into the pleasurable 
feelings which the amiable Letsom expresses, after 
alluding to the fact that many strong and good 
plants, which were shipped at Canton, during their 
voyage grew sickly, and one only survived the 
passage to England, he says, a few young tea- 
plants have been lately introduced into some of the 
most curious botanic gardens about London, so that 
it seems probable that this very distinguished 
vegetable will become a denizen of England, and 
such of her colonies as may be deemed most fa- 
vourable to its propagation: his own drawing, 
which, for the period it was done, is of great ele- 
gance, was taken from a plant at Sion House, be- 
longing to the Duke of Northumberland ; it was the 
first that ever flowered in Europe. 

We are now become familiar with that which was 
hailed as a great improvement in our botanic know- 
ledge ; and at the gardens of Messrs. Loddige will 
be found, at the proper season, the plants in full 



94? TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

flower, and growing to a height of six feet. In 
France attempts have been made to naturalise and 
to introduce it on a large scale ; and a gardener 
published a prospectus, which promised to sub- 
scribers an early supply of what he named Xeno- 
phonia Thea Sinensis ; but as the art of drying it 
was unknown, the scheme was quickly abandoned. 

Nicolaus Tulpius was about the first medical 
man who wrote professionally upon tea, but they 
were not original observations ; they were the opi- 
nions of the most eminent men he had collected 
to give to the world. But in 1678 appeared the 
first edition of a book which speedily ran through 
three large impressions, and had a considerable in- 
fluence upon the introduction of tea : it was entitled 
Cornelio JBontekoe, Tractaat van het excellenste 
Kruyd Thee. Although this work was, from the 
extravagance of its commendations on tea, severely 
handled by some of the critics, it was translated 
into many languages, and quoted as the highest 
authority. He pronounced tea to be the infallible 
cause of health, and that if mankind could be 
induced to drink a sufficient quantity of it, the 
innumerable ills to which man is subject would 
not only be diminished, but entirely unknown. 
He thinks that 200 cups daily would not be too 
much. He is said to have been rewarded for 
his judgment by the liberality of the Dutch East 
India Company. Heydentrik Overcamp, who wrote 
the life of Bontekoe, states that his inducement 
to write was to recommend himself to his fellow- 
citizens, and to defend himself against his col- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 95 

leagues, who did not follow his theory or" his prac- 
tice. Etmiiller recommended tea as a fine stomachic 
cephalic and antinephritic. Pechlin wrote a dia- 
logue on tea, which he entitled Theophilus Biba- 
culus ; and several poets indulged themselves in 
its praise. Petit wrote a poem; Peter Francius, 
two Anacreontics ; Heinrich, a Doric Melydrion ; 
and our poet-laureate, Tate, joined the melodious 
bards. Whilst it met with so much approbation, 
there were likewise those who were not equally 
satisfied with its merits. Boerhaave, Van Swieten, 
and others, attempted to stem the tide that was 
setting in its favour, but they have proved them- 
selves incapable of resisting the general impression ; 
for no beverage that has ever yet been introduced 
sits so agreeably on the stomach, so refreshes the 
system, soothes nervous irritation after fatigue, or 
forms a more grateful repast. It contributes to the 
sobriety of a nation ; it imparts all the charms to 
society which spring from the enjoyment of con- 
versation, without that excitement which follows 
upon a fermented drink. Raynal has observed, 
that it has contributed more to the sobriety of the 
Chinese than the severest laws, the most eloquent 
harangues of Christian orators, or the best treatises 
of morality. The people on the Continent are 
reverting to the habit of tea-drinking, which they 
had abandoned during the long war, when they 
were shut out from the possibility of obtaining it, 
and therefore sought a substitute in coffee. In 
Holland, in Germany, and in Russia, tea is much 
prized ; whilst even in France, where for so many 



96 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

years coffee was considered the only good beverage, 
and was used either strong or mixed with milk, 
according to the meal that was taken, our favourite 
shrub is beginning to be as much in use as long 
established custom has rendered it in England. 

The introduction of tea-drinking into England has 
been ascribed to Lord Arlington and Lord Orrery ; 
and the year 1666, the annus mirabilis of Dry den, 
has been assigned as the exact date : but in the 
diary of Mr. Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty, 
the following is registered, — " I sent for a cup of 
tea, a Chinese drink, of which I had never drank 
before." In the diary of Henry, Earl of Claren- 
don, there is a memorandum, — "Pere Couplet sup- 
ped with me, and after supper we had tea, which 
he said was really as good as any he drank in 
China." The first historical record, however, is 
an act of Parliament, passed in the year 1660, 
12 Carl. II. c. 23. which enacts, that a duty should 
be laid of eight-pence per gallon on all tea made and 
sold in coffee-houses ; which were visited twice daily 
by officers, whose duty it was to ascertain what 
quantity had been made. In 1668, the Court of 
Directors, in the despatch to their factory at Bantam 
in Java, ordered them "to send home by their 
ships one hundred pounds* weight of the best tey 
they could get;" and the following year appears 
the first invoice of tea received by the East India 
Company, amounting to two canisters of 143^ lbs. 
The Directors had previously presented to her 
Majesty, the Queen, who, as Princess Catherine of 
Portugal, had been in the habit of taking this 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 97 

beverage, twenty-two pounds of tea. It is to this 
present on her birthday that Waller has alluded in 
the beautiful lines that may be so often quoted, both 
for their merit and for the historical facts recorded by 
them. There is a curious bill preserved in the 
British Museum in a volume of pamphlets, col- 
lected by George III. and presented by George IV. 
which is well worthy of being reprinted, as the first 
account of the early use and the estimation in 
which tea was held. It unfortunately has no date ; 
but from the price it may be fairly inferred, that it 
was printed about 1660. There is every reason to 
believe that Gar way has been gradually changed 
into Garraway, and that he must have been the 
predecessor of the present holder of that well- 
known coffee-house : — 

" An exact Description of the Growth, Quality, 
and Virtues of the Leaf Tea, by Thomas Garway, in 
Exchange Alley, near the Royal Exchange, in Lon- 
don, Tobacconist, and Seller and Retailer of Tea 
and Coffee. 

" Tea is generally brought from China, and 
groweth there upon little shrubs and bushes, the 
branches whereof are well garnished with white 
flowers, that are yellow within, of the bigness and 
fashion of sweet-brier, but in smell unlike, bearing 
thin green leaves, about the bigness of Scordium, 
myrtle, or Sumack ; and is judged to be a kind of 
Sumack. This plant hath been reported to grow 
wild only, but doth not; for they plant it in their 
gardens, about four foot distance, and it groweth 
about four foot high ; and of the seeds they main- 

H 



98 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

tain and increase their stock. Of all places in 
China this plant groweth in greatest plenty in the 
province of Xemsi, latitude 36°, bordering upon the 
west of the province of Namking, near the city of 
Lucheu, the Island de Ladrones, and Japan, and is 
called ' Cha/ Of this famous leaf there are divers 
sorts (though all one shape), some much better than 
others, the upper leaves excelling the other in fine- 
ness, a property almost in all plants; which leaves 
they gather every day, and drying them in the shade 
or in iron pans, over a gentle fire, till the humidity 
be exhausted, then put close up in leaden pots, pre- 
serve them for their drink tea, which is used at 
meals, and upon all visits and entertainments in 
private families, and in the palaces of grandees : 
and it is averred by a padre of Macao, native of 
Japan, that the best tea ought to be gathered but 
by virgins, who are destined for this work, and such 
6 quae non dum menstrua patiuntur : gemmae quae 
nascuntur in summitate arbuscula servantur Impera- 
tori, ac praecipuis ejus dynastis : quae autem infra 
nascuntur ad latera, populo conceduntur.' The said 
leaf is of such known virtues, that those very 
nations, so famous for antiquity, knowledge, and 
wisdom, do frequently sell it among themselves for 
twice its weight in silver ; and the high estimation 
of the drink made therewith hath occasioned an 
inquiry into the nature thereof amongst the most 
intelligent persons of all nations that have tra- 
velled in those parts, who, after exact tryal and 
experience by all wayes imaginable, have com- 
mended it to the use of their several countries, and 



AND MORAL EFFECTS, 99 

for its virtues and operations, particularly as fol- 
loweth ; viz. — 

<c The quality is moderately hot, proper for 
winter and summer. The drink is declared to be 
most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until 
extreme old age. 

" The particular virtues are these : — 

" It maketh the body active and lusty. 

" It helpeth the head-ache, giddiness and heavi- 
ness thereof. 

" It removeth the obstructions of the spleen. 

" It is very good against the stone and gravel, 
cleaning the kidneys and ureters, being drank with 
virgin's honey, instead of sugar. 

" It taketh away the difficulty of breathing, open- 
ing obstructions. 

"It is good against tipitude, distillations, and 
cleareth the sight. 

"It removeth lassitude, and cleanseth and pu- 
rifieth acrid humours, and a hot liver. 

" It is good against crudities, strengthening the 
weakness of the ventricle, or stomach, causing good 
appetite and digestion, and particularly for men of 
corpulent body, and such as are great eaters of 
flesh. 

" It vanquisheth heavy dreams, easeth the frame., 
and strengthen eth the memory. 

iC It overcometh superfluous sleep, and prevents 
sleepiness in general, a draught of the infusion be- 
ing taken ; so that, without trouble, whole nights 
may be spent in study without hurt to the body, in 
h 2 



100 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

that it moderately healeth and bindeth the mouth of 
the stomach. 

" It prevents and cures agues, surfets, and fevers, 
by infusing a fit quantity of the leaf, thereby pro- 
voking a most gentle vomit and breathing of the 
pores, and hath been given with wonderful success. 

" It (being prepared and drank with milk and 
water) strengtheneth the inward parts, and pre- 
vents consumption ; and powerfully assuageth the 
pains of the bowels, or griping of the guts, and 
looseness. 

" It is good for colds, dropsys, and scurvys, if 
properly infused, purging the body by sweat and 
urine, and expelleth infection. 

" It driveth away all pains of the collick pro- 
ceeding from wind, and purgeth safely the gall. 

"And that the virtues and excellencies of this leaf 
and drink are many and great, is evident and ma- 
nifest by the high esteem and use of it (especially 
of late years) among the physicians and knowing 
men of France, Italy, Holland, and other parts of 
Christendom ; and in England it hath been sold in 
the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten 
pounds the pound weight; and in respect of its 
former scarceness and dearness, it hath been only 
used as a regalia in high treatments and entertain- 
ments, and presents made thereof to princes and 
grandees till the year 1657. The said Thomas 
Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first 
publicly sold the said tea in leaf and drink, made 
according to the directions of the most knowing 
merchants and travellers in those eastern countries ; 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 101 

and upon knowledge and experience of the said 
Garway's continued care and industry in obtaining 
the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many 
noblemen, physicians, and merchants, and gentle- 
men of quality, have ever since sent to him for the 
said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Exchange 
Alley aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof. 

" And that ignorance nor envy may have no ground 
or power to report, or suggest that which is here 
asserted, of the virtues and excellencies of this pre- 
cious leaf and drink, hath more of design than 
truth, for the justification of himself, and the satis- 
faction of others, he hath here enumerated several 
authors, who in their learned works have expressly 
written and asserted the same and much more in 
honour of this noble leaf and drink, viz. Bontius, 
Riccius, Jarricus, Almeyda, Horstius, Alvarez Se- 
meda, Martinivus in his China Atlas, and Alex- 
ander de Rhodes in his Voyage and Missions, in a 
large discourse of the ordering of this leaf, and the 
many virtues of the drink ; printed at Paris, 1653, 
part x. chap. 13. 

" And to the end that all persons of eminency and 
quality, gentlemen and others, who have occasion 
for tea in leaf, may be supplyed, these are to 
give notice, that the said Thomas hath tea to sell 
from sixteen to fifty shillings in the pound. 

" And whereas several persons using coffee, have 
been accustomed to buy the powder thereof by the 
pound, or in lesser or greater quantities, which if 
kept two days loseth much of its first goodness ; and 
forasmuch as the berries, after drying, may be kept, 
H 3 



102 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

if need require, some months ; therefore, all persons 
living remote from London, and have occasion for 
the said powder, are advised to buy the said 
coffee-berries ready dryed, which being in a mortar 
beaten, or in a mill ground to powder, as they use ' 
it, will so often be brisk, fresh, and fragrant, and 
in its full vigour and strength, as if new prepared, 
to the great satisfaction of the drinkers thereof, as 
hath been experienced by many in this city, which 
community, of the best sort, the said Thomas 
Gar way hath alwayes ready dryed, to be sold at 
reasonable rates. 

" All such as will have coffee in powder, or the 
berries undryed, or chocolata, may, by the said 
Thomas Garway, be supplied to their content ; with 
such further instructions and perfect directions how 
to use tea, coffee, and chocolata, as is or may be 
needful, and so as to be effecatious and operative 
according to their several vertues." 

There is no date to this handbill, but as Hanway 
ascertained that the price was 60s. per lb. in 1660, 
this bill must have been distributed about that 
period. 

The physician does not confine himself to the 
knowledge of the power he possesses to restore 
health and to alleviate pain ; he must likewise give 
the information he has been enabled to glean relative 
to that which can preserve it, and may enable man 
to encounter all the varied circumstances and acci- 
dents of life, from the period of his birth to the 
moment of his decay. Yet how seldom has he 
given to the public the conclusions to which he 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 103 

may have arrived, after a long observation of the 
effects which habits of life produce upon the states 
of well-being and of longevity. The few works 
upon diet are by no means sufficient guides to 
the various classes of society. They are for the 
most part composed of a few maxims and observ- 
ations upon the nutritive qualities of each of the 
aliments of prevailing use. There is, however, an 
extensive field of research to be traversed by 
those who may be disposed to direct their atten- 
tion to the influence of different aliments upon the 
human body ; the circumstances under which they 
are best adapted for use, and the times at which one 
or other is to be preferred. The quality of food, 
the Jhours at which it is to be taken, must mate- 
rially differ amongst the great classes of rich and of 
poor ; but the different pursuits and occupations of 
life demand that there should be a similar distinction 
in diet. The individual engaged in the highest 
intellectual pursuits, who is frequently called upon, 
either in the senate or at the bar, to exert his 
powers of reasoning, and of conveying his thoughts 
to others, must follow very dissimilar habits of life 
from those of the man who, engaged in commercial 
speculations, goes to his counting-house at a certain 
hour, and there awaits intelligence which may either 
gratify or annoy him. The nervous systems of 
both are constantly in a high state of excitement, but 
that excitement varies in its character, and has dif- 
ferent channels by which it is relieved. In the one 
instance there is an immediate vent to the feelings, 
and the pleasurable or painful emotions are quickly 
h 4 



104* TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

displayed ; whilst in the other case, both joy and 
grief must be suppressed, and more especially the 
causes of anxiety : the mind therefore is more 
preyed upon, and the depressing passions gradually 
lead to a despondency which preys upon the health. 
The student in his chamber, the shopkeeper, the 
mechanic, each has his peculiar habits, which de- 
mand for him a knowledge of the effects of the 
ordinary aliment to which he is to have recourse, 
according to the circumstances of his life. Nor is 
it less necessary for the idle man to be familiar with 
the best mode of securing to himself, by a proper 
attention to his diet, the inestimable blessings 
which result from a well-ordered state of body. The 
particular aliment which is now under discussion, is 
not to be considered merely as affording some degree 
of nutrition, but with a view to its effects upon the 
different classes of society ; and likewise as to its 
combination with other portions of the diet, on 
which health so much depends. 

The more simple the fluid which man takes as his 
ordinary beverage, the greater will be its facility of 
digestion, and of conversion into the component 
parts of the human system. There are many states of 
existence in which water, the common drink of all 
vegetating bodies, would be preferable to any other; 
but besides its insipidity, there are circumstances 
which render it unpalatable, and there are also 
very valid reasons for avoiding its constant use as 
an aliment. There are districts and cities that can- 
not furnish a water fit for daily drinking, as well 
from the minerals that are held in solution in it, as 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 105 

from the minute ova of plants and animals existing 
in the most extraordinary quantities. In a drop of 
water in some states may be discovered myriads of 
forms of living beings, of a soft transparent gela- 
tinous and almost homogeneous texture, which have 
been called infusoria : these abound in some waters, 
rendering them unfit for common drink, or, as in some 
instances, may assist as medicinal agents. Thus some 
chalybeate waters have their surface covered with a 
crust of infusorial animalculae, having a coat of mail 
investing their bodies; in sulphureous springs 
another race of these animalculae cover their bodies 
with a coating of sulphur. It was most probably 
owing to the necessity of boiling the water, which in 
China is remarkable for its impurity, for the pur- 
pose of destroying all vegetating and prolific 
power, that the Chinese owe their present system 
of tea- drinking. In all warm climates a most 
uncomfortable sensation of thirst is constantly ex- 
perienced, to relieve which, sipping some fluid not 
absolutely tasteless is constantly demanded. The 
salivary glands have it not in their power to yield 
any of that fluid which in a temperate climate con- 
stantly lubricates the mouth, and which is one of 
the most decided indications of general health, 
proving that the upper portion of the alimentary 
canal is in its wonted state, that no inordinate state 
of temperature marks the blood, and that the ner- 
vous system is fully adequate to meet collision with 
the world. The dry mouth and the white tongue 
are the first signs of indigestion ; and almost all the 
disorders of the alimentary canal exhibit, as their 



106 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

first symptom, some unwonted state of the salivary- 
glands : whilst these are dry there can be no hunger ; 
and when their secretion becomes morbidly altered, 
or when, as life advances, it becomes impregnated 
with salts, the whole system partakes of the influence. 
Although the saliva under ordinary circumstances 
is insipid, yet either in a hot climate or in age it 
becomes capable, if it be not properly diluted, of 
actual fermentation ; thus the Indians obtain a fer- 
mented liquor by causing the teethless old women 
of their tribe to masticate maize, and to spit out the 
saliva into a receptacle for fermentation. M. Texier, 
in a highly interesting narrative of his visit to Afi- 
oum Kara Hissar, for the purpose of inspecting the" 
celebrated poppy-farms of Asia, from which the 
opium was obtained, was astonished to find that the 
labourers when they had scraped off the opium in the 
form of a viscid jelly, placed it in earthen jars, and 
spit into them ; he told them that he thought water 
would be a proper substitute, but they assured him 
that the goodness of the opium was materially in- 
fluenced by their secretion ; in fact that a species of 
fermentation goes forward, which materially assists 
the development of the meconic acid, which Nature 
has united with the alkaline base or morphia, the 
narcotic principle. 

In almost all warm climates, those who have pre- 
viously lived in more temperate regions, constantly 
sip or drink large draughts ; but if the first of 
these habits be acquired, and a bland, slightly bitter 
fluid such as tea be employed, health will be pro- 
moted, and the comfort that it produces will become 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 107 

apparent. If this be not the case, large draughts of 
cold drink are necessary, which are determined to 
the surface of the skin, the perspiration becomes 
enormous, whilst the liver has its secretions ma- 
terially altered, and the foundation for disease is 
laid. In India, in most of our settlements, the 
dangerous cup of brandy-and-water is too often 
before the parched sufferer : at first he naturally 
drinks it very weak, and limited to " a little ;" after 
a time the draught becomes delicious ; it is not only 
a luxury, but necessary to him ; the spirit is in- 
creased, and, for a time, the skin is the channel by 
which the extra quantity of fluid is carried off: but 
this is most mischievous, and habituates the system 
to a stimulus which at last loses its effect, and the 
very re-action which results from it is a depressing 
power. In Spain, more especially in Madrid, cold 
water is almost necessary to existence. The saun- 
terer upon the prado in the evening buys his glass 
of cold water,' his aquafrisca, or he is ill ; he passes 
a night of febrile excitement, and his meridiana 
on the following day is harassed by frightful dreams 
and cold perspirations. The smoker of the cigar, 
who has had his salivary glands dried up by the 
narcotic power of the tobacco, does not feel this 
thirst, and vaunts the virtue of the weed ; and if 
that state of the salivary glands were not an un- 
wholesome one, reducing his appetite, and post- 
poning the calls of hunger, he would have reason 
for approval of the habit. It is, however, to tea 
that the considerate man should direct his atten- 
tion ; and he should in warm climates follow the 



108 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

habit of the sagacious Chinese, who invariably pre- 
pares his cup of tea, which he unceasingly sips, and 
only in such quantities as gently to excite the sali- 
vary glands, and keep up a feeling of equal mois- 
ture and of warmth during the heat of the \ day : 
his cup is small, and, unlike ours, it is never 
without its attendant cover ; it is kept warm, and 
the grateful aroma is preserved. On a warm day 
in this country, where the mind is much occupied, 
where the body has little action, sipping tea might 
be found highly serviceable ; and instead of taking 
ice, which momentarily relieves, but afterwards pro- 
duces only a fresh desire for cold and for draught, 
the practice of sipping is to be recommended. 
When, however, the dryness of the mouth and fauces 
is produced by excitement of the nervous system, 
and has lasted for any length of time, sipping has 
rather an irritating influence, from calling too fre- 
quently the muscles of deglutition into action. The 
public speaker, however much he may desire to 
moisten his mouth, should, during his exertions, 
avoid it ; it produces an irritation about the glot- 
tis which often excites cough, and then a viscid 
secretion of impeding mucus. 

It has been believed, in consequence of some 
observations made by Mr. Abernethy, that during 
eating there should be no drinking; and certainly 
this rule, in some of the diseases of the digestive 
organs, is important ; but it is not to be applied to 
a state of health. A due admixture of fluid and 
solid matter is absolutely necessary for healthy 
action ; not large and copious draughts of any 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 109 

fluid whatever, but sufficient to stimulate the 
salivary glands into their proper secretion, and also 
enough to propel the already digested mass from 
the stomach, A gentle stimulus of three or four 
glasses of wine during the great meal of the day, 
is the common habit of life of those engaged in 
occupations which do not demand any very extra- 
ordinary exertions, either of body or of mind ; and 
the general state of health, and the longevity of 
those who do not trespass further upon the limits 
of moderation, are evident proofs of the propriety 
of such a system ; after the meal, when some little 
time has elapsed, two or three glasses of Port pro- 
duce no ill effects. Some individuals only take 
their wine after the dinner: but this is by no means 
so serviceable ; for the stomach becomes suddenly 
stimulated, its action is hurried, and the slow and 
gradual development of heat is exchanged for a 
sudden excitement, which leaves a greater degree 
of collapse behind. About two hours after this 
a diluent may be advantageously taken ; then it is 
that tea imparts a grateful glow of warmth, assists 
the stomach to unload itself from the digested 
food, which it gently propels ; soon after it has 
been taken, the languor which is usually attendant 
upon a full meal disappears, the propensity to 
slumber so apt to prevail is dissipated, the body 
feels light, and the mind capable of either gather- 
ing fresh information, or of indulging in the recre- 
ation which society affords. Coffee-drinking has, 
since the great intercourse with France, much 
increased ; and thus persons have acquired the 



110 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

habit of most injudiciously taking the strongest 
coffee after their dinner as well as tea. A be- 
verage formed of coffee has great charms, and 
likewise energetic power over the system, but it 
must be taken with caution. In France, where 
wines of the lighter qualities are preferred, a 
strong infusion of the berry may be demanded for 
the assistance of the stomach; but where Port, 
Sherry, or Madeira, have been taken, coffee may 
be said to be injurious. Excitement follows upon 
its use ; watchfulness of a long duration, and a 
feverish re-action, are amongst its immediate re- 
sults : its distant ones act upon the extreme capil- 
lary vessels of the bod) r , which it seems to con- 
stringe, affecting the skin, giving it a peculiar 
hardness, and it has been affirmed to impart its 
colour ; the sallowness of the skin of the Parisians 
has been, by more than one medical author, 
ascribed to it. Many authors have affirmed that 
paralytic affections, and general debility, follow 
its use. After dinner, in the form of very strong 
infusion, the cafe noir is often taken without 
sugar, sugar-candy, cream, or milk, and is almost 
an essence of the berry. The individuals to whom 
it is useful, are those whose breathing is per- 
formed with difficulty; they find the greatest relief 
from drinking strong coffee, and many escape the 
midnight paroxysm of asthma, by taking their cup 
about four hours before the usual hour of retiring 
to rest. 

Tea, as the morning beverage, when breakfast 
forms a good substantial meal, upon which the 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. Ill 

powers for the day of meeting the various chances 
and changes of life depend, provided it be not too 
strong, is much to be recommended : but when 
individuals eat little, coffee certainly supports them 
in a more decided manner ; and, besides this, tea, 
without a certain quantity of solid aliment, is much 
more likely to influence the nervous system. Some 
persons, if they drink tea in the morning and coffee 
at night, suffer much in animal spirits and in power 
of enjoyment of the pleasures of society; but if 
they reverse the system, and take coffee in the 
morning and tea at night, they reap benefit from 
the change ; for the coffee, which to them in the 
morning is nutrition, becomes a stimulus at night; 
and the tea, which acts as a diluent at night, gives 
nothing for support during the day. Nothing can 
be more injurious than the habit of taking spirits at 
breakfast in tea ; and this is a very seductive custom, 
which is followed by persons who complain, that two 
or three hours after breakfast they feel, without 
their dram, an uncomfortable sinking at the stomach, 
a general depression, sometimes palpitation of the 
heart, and a sense of languor and incapability of 
moving the limbs, which renders them quite inca- 
pable of pursuing their daily avocations. A train 
of miserable symptoms, to which the term "ner- 
vousness" is given, and which is most difficult to be 
described, attends this state, for which brandy or 
rum in the cup of tea is often permitted, in the 
dose of one or two tea-spoons ; this lays the foun- 
dation for dram-drinking, with all its pernicious 
consequences. An individual thus affected will do 



112 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

well] to renounce tea altogether, and to substitute 
for it a beverage half coffee, half warm milk, and 
if possible to acquire the habit of taking a substan- 
tial breakfast, which alone can dissipate this symp- 
tom of uneasiness. As a simple and salutary dilu- 
ent, no fluid is to be compared with the infusion of 
tea; although milk, milk porridge, gruel, broth, 
cocoa, coffee, infusion of sage, of balnr, of juni- 
per berries, of aniseed, of fennel, of hay, of cori- 
ander, of betony, of rosemary, of ginger, and 
even sugar and water, have all had their advo- 
cates, and have all been tried, they none of 
them form so grateful and useful a diluent with the 
ordinary meal, and they none of them are so uni- 
formly agreeable : and though there may be pecu- 
liar idiosyncrasies, in which it may not altogether 
agree, yet it is innocent beyond all other drinks 
with which we are acquainted. 

It may be thought that, whether food be taken 
warm or cold, the effect is precisely the same upon 
the digestive and nutritive powers : such, however, 
is not the case ; and from infancy to manhood great 
attention is necessary to apportion the temperature 
of that which is taken to the state of the system. 
True it is, that for a great length of time a person 
in high health and exercise does not require all that 
nice care and attention to diet necessary to the 
individual mingling in the world, who lives almost 
in an artificial state, and is bound to follow the com- 
mon habits of life, whether they be hurtful to him 
individually, or be useful; he is the more in- 
terested that society generally should follow such 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 113 

customs as are most likely to prove salutary. Early 
as the days of Galen it had been remarked, how 
necessary to the proper digestion of the aliment was 
a certain degree of warmth ; and that, if the stomach 
cannot produce it naturally, an artificial heat must 
be obtained through the medium of the food. When 
the anatomy of the human body was but imper- 
fectly understood, and the functions of its various 
organs little known, vague theories supplied the 
place of scientific inquiry. The stomach was then 
compared to a culinary vessel, in which that which 
was taken was prepared for nutrition by means of 
heat and fermentation. The heart, the liver, and 
the spleen, were singularly enough supposed to be 
organs destined, by the temperature of the blood 
they contained, to act as the fire. Science, whilst 
it has proved the fallacy of these views, has scarcely 
substituted any satisfactory explanation of the facts. 
We know that an increase of temperature is neces- 
sary for the due digestion and preparation of the 
nutrient matter^ but we are ignorant of the laws 
upon which this development of heat depends. 
Within a certain time after a meal, it is evident 
that the system exerts its energies ; and that, under 
some circumstances, a febrile state is produced, 
marked by flushing of the face, by headache, by 
increased action of the pulse : this is followed by a 
reaction, in which sluggishness and sleep are often 
prevalent. 

These are the consequences of the attempt of the 
blood to assimilate that which it has imbibed to 
its own temperature ; if this be performed with 
i 



114 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

facility, ease and order in the performance of the 
functions are visible ; but if there be a laboured 
action, disease and disorder ensue. A cold diet per- 
severed in for any great length of time debilitates the 
system, though it at first excites it. The stomach is 
ordinarily the first organ that exhibits an unwonted 
state ; a sense of weight, of acidity, of heartburn, 
and of flatulence, are soon experienced ; and though 
at first indigestion be the only effect, speedily some 
of the other organs have their functions impeded ; 
the liver, the nervous system, or the heart suffers ; 
and if their structure be not changed, such is 
the impediment to their due action, that they la- 
bour under affections which wear the. appearance of 
the most frightful disease, so that the most skilful 
are deceived, and organic mischief is proclaimed to 
exist : indeed, the effects are nearly the same ; for 
the viscus most predisposed to debility sympathises 
first; and thus the lungs, the liver, or any other 
organ becomes irrevocably diseased. To remedy 
the first stage of indigestion, the sufferer often has 
recourse to vinous or spirituous drinks, which for a 
moment relieve his sufferings, raising the tempera- 
ture of the stomach ; but, as it is only a momentary 
stimulus, no lasting benefit can be experienced, 
whilst the reaction or debility consequent upon it 
is even worse than the first symptoms. The exam- 
ple of fish, whose blood is scarcely warmer than the 
fluid in which they move, may be adduced as an 
argument against the necessity of a warm diet. 
The most voracious of them feed upon beings of a 
similar structure to themselves, cold-blooded; but 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 115 

these do not require the same process for their di- 
gestion, for they are quickly converted into a slimy 
mass ; the lowest grade of active decomposition, 
which is putrefaction, is all that is required. The 
warmth, therefore, conveyed to the stomach of man 
by tea-drinking at his various meals becomes es- 
sential to him ; and though at his dinner he takes 
some fermented liquor, at other meals some warm 
beverage is of essential service to him. Nor would 
the crystal stream of the poet suffice for the healthy 
powers of digestion in the artificial state of exist- 
ence in which we are placed. 

A warm infusion is therefore at particular meals 
to be preferred to cold drink, although the latter 
may be taken in high health. That we may run into 
the contrary extreme, and take the liquor much too 
hot, there can be no doubt ; and, although much 
exaggeration has been indulged in, there is every 
reason to believe that mischief has sprung from this 
source. Boerhaave, the celebrated physician, was 
much struck in his latter days with the appearance 
of induration of the glands of the oesophagus or 
passage from the mouth to the stomach. He believed 
this disease to be unknown to the ancients, and 
somewhat hastily concluded that it must be the 
result of drinking tea too hot ; and various affections 
of the stomach have been ascribed to a similar 
cause. There were many of the leading physicians 
of Hamburgh and of Amsterdam, who, when tea 
was first introduced, took up strong prejudices 
against it, and threatened the world with an aggres- 
sion of a host of diseases : they more particularly 
i 2 



116 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

spoke of leucorrhcea, which was not denied by some 
of their brethren as occurring after much indul- 
gence in this beverage; but they attributed it to the 
prevailing fashion of drinking it hot. Ribe has 
written a very ingenious treatise, entitled Usas Fer- 
vidorum et Gelidormn. He ascribes carious teeth 
to hot food, and various chronic states of debility 
to the custom of drinking hot tea : he also animad- 
verts upon the use of iced creams, jellies, and 
particularly a custom at that time prevalent in 
Sweden, afterwards abandoned, and now revived in 
France, of eating congealed oysters. 

There are very many states of the system, more 
especially when there is a tendency to spasm, to 
cramp, or to spasmodic affections, in which warm 
fluids are absolutely necessary, and in which cold 
will produce considerable mischief. Warm tea 
during dinner is a very agreeable stimulant, when 
there is great delicacy of the digestive organs ; but 
the habit should not be persevered in for any length 
of time, for its effects are never permanent, and not 
unfrequently the stomach loses its natural tone for 
some period afterwards, and emaciation has been 
the result. After exercise, such as dancing, warm 
tea is most grateful, and at the same time salutary ; 
and when there has been a checked perspiration, 
arising from the application of sudden cold, few 
even of the more powerful sudor ifics exert such an 
influence upon the skin, causing an exhalation from 
the surface of a large portion of that carbonic acid, 
whose retention in the system is a constant source 
of disease. 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 117 

Tea is more particularly adapted for the ordinary 
beverage of young women ; and the individual who, 
until the day of her marriage, has never tasted 
wine, or any fermented liquor, is the one who is 
most likely to preserve her own health, and to fulfil 
the great end of her existence, the handing down 
to posterity a strong and well organised offspring, 
capable of adding to the improvement and to the 
welfare of the community. To preserve the. form 
and beauty of the sex is a duty that man owes to 
himself, not for his sake alone, but for that of 
future generations. The Spartan legislator, who 
banished from their use all luxuries, who regulated 
with strict discipline their diet, was fully aware of 
the influence their habits of life must have upon 
the youth who were to maintain the glory of his 
commonwealth. His maxims, as long as they were 
rigidly enforced, were successful ; and, when they 
were allowed to pass into oblivion, a degenerate 
race quickly succeeded to bold warriors. 

When the frame of the female has nearly obtained 
its full growth, and some time previous to its arrival 
at a state of perfection, a vast variety of changes 
occur, which prepare it for the functions for which 
it was so wonderfully and beautifully constructed, 
and for which its complicated mechanism is so 
admirably adapted — the reproduction of the species 
— the preservation and nutrition of her offspring. 
At this time preparation is making, by the boun- 
teous hand of Providence, for the full development 
of her system. Woman must pay the strictest 
attention to a well regulated and abstemious diet, 
I 3 



118 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

to proper exercise, and to the keeping up a due 
action upon the surface of the skin. The efforts of 
Nature are almost invariably successful, and the 
greater number of females are prepared to fulfil the 
destiny for which they are ordained ; yet it is at 
this moment, however fair may be the external form, 
that it is most fragile. Too soon is superabundant 
health exchanged for suffering and for sorrow, if 
the quantity of nutrition which is intended, not only 
for herself but for her offspring, be too great. If, 
instead of eating moderately, of drinking the lightest 
and most innocent fluids, she be permitted to in- 
dulge the fancies of her palate, and in the indis- 
criminate use of every article of food that is placed 
before her, bitter will be the repentance that 
must follow; and inattention to the observations 
which have been made by those who have preceded 
her in the paths of life must lead to sorrow, and to 
the most acute suffering and disappointment. 

The quantity of fluid taken is not of such import- 
ance as the quality of it; for nature has many 
channels by which she can relieve herself from 
such superfluity, but the grosser particles she can- 
not so easily expel. Every thing that is taken 
tends to increase the circulation, yet there is a 
wonderful adaptation of means to carry it on, 
without endangering the functions of the' various 
organs. Congestions do not occur ; but the tend- 
ency is to fill every minute capillary vessel, which, 
if the blood be in its proper state, quickly again 
relieves itself. It is not only the arterial system 
that is thus replete, but the venous system partakes 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 119 

of the fulness ; so that nutrition is at its utmost 
point : then is a woman in the full possession of 
her bodily attractions and her mental charms. Of 
the fulness of the blood-vessels, the eye exhibits a 
striking and peculiar instance ; its white coat exhi- 
bits a most beautiful hue ; there is an exquisite tint 
of blue, which gives to the pearly membrane a 
shade that approaches the azure of a serene sky: 
it has occasionally something so supernatural in it, 
that Byron's line, 

64 That eye was in itself a soul," 

appears not only poetic but descriptive. This 
depends upon the minutest venous channels of the 
coat of the eye being charged with the blue 
coloured blood which circulates in the venous 
system, and at no other period of life is this visible. 
Not only must this plethora be duly watched, 
but the circulation which is also too readily ac- 
celerated. In an instant the heart quickens 
with an unnatural throb; the face is quickly 
flushed; the mind like the body is in an electric 
state ; they react upon each other ; every chord is 
tremblingly alive to the touch, its tension is irre- 
sistibly strong; every vibration is conveyed through 
the whole system; the pulse exhibits the mental 
emotion, the cheeks are crimsoned with a native 
glow, or the neck deeply suffused ; the eyes sparkle 
with the illumination of genius, beam with the 
fondest and truest filial affection, or radiate with 
the light of love; a gentle warmth is diffused 
throughout the frame, and all that can betoken the 
i 4 



120 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

highest health gives hope and expectation of joy 
and life. Yet how quickly is this happy state ex- 
changed for one of misery and disappointment, 
when any of the dictates of prudence are forgotten : 
exposure to cold may produce consumption, or 
retardation of the actions of the economy; a full 
and gross diet will give rise to plethora or inflam- 
mation of the most important organs by which life 
is sustained. 

There are some females upon whom green tea 
produces very nearly the same effect as digitalis or 
foxglove ; and it has been medicinally employed in 
the diseases for which that herb has so decidedly 
obtained a high reputation. Desbois of Rochfort 
has, by the use of it, cured numerous nervous dis- 
eases which have arisen from accelerated circu- 
lation. Dr. Percival had an idea that green tea 
possessed nearly the same power as does digitalis, 
of controlling and abating the motion of the heart. 
It is a singular fact that there are several instances 
recorded, in which green tea has restored regularity 
to a pulse which has been habitually intermittent ; 
and it has often relieved the severe paroxysms 
which occur where water exists in the chest. In 
diseased laugs in young females it has been found 
of essential service ; and even when consumption has 
made advances, when suppurative fever, attended 
with great restlessness and hurried circulation, has 
produced its highest excitement, green tea has been 
found to alleviate the worst symptoms. In these 
instances its action has much resembled the fox- 
glove ; in the gentler sex those palpitations for 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 121 

which this herb has been found valuable will derive 
relief from green tea. It forms an agreeable me- 
dium for aromatic spirits of ammonia ; for harts- 
horn, in many states of nervousness and of hysteria. 
When the duration of what was supposed to be a 
slight cold is longer than usual; when the pulse 
varies in quickness at different periods of the day ; 
when there is a slight cough, which is aggravated 
on going to bed ; when the heart beats violently on 
going up or down stairs ; when there is a slight 
difficulty of breathing in a horizontal position, and 
we observe the individual to be of delicate habits, 
and under twenty years of age, she must be watched 
with great tenderness and anxiety ; her food must 
be closely investigated, and attention to diet en- 
forced. Green tea is oftentimes highly to be recom- 
mended; but its administration must be watched. 
After marriage a diet of a different description is 
at various times necessary ; then all that is nourish- 
ing is to be sought for, and every thing that can 
lower the general system must be avoided. Al- 
though wine has been up to this period of life 
proscribed, it may be now rationally and cautiously 
used ; and that which of all others affords the great- 
est assistance to the frame is the wine of Cham- 
pagne. Of this an occasional glass or two during 
the dinner is one of the most important means of 
imparting strength ; for the venous system requires 
to be more than ordinarily carbonised. Neither 
during lactation, nor in the early period of child- 
bearing, is tea the most desirable beverage ; but at 
any other time it is useful, as determining to the 



122 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

surface of the skin, and acting as a gentle diluent* 
and imparting an agreeable sensation of warmth 
and comfort to the whole system, care always being 
taken that there be no exposure to cold after the 
evening meal, at which time there is a great sus- 
ceptibility to morbid impression. 

It is about the age of forty-two that the habits of 
life demand attention from those who would secure a 
healthy old age. It is the period, however, in which 
the activity of the mind impels each individual on- 
ward in his career, and renders him careless of his 
frame, unless immediate suffering urgently require 
his conformity to the regimen and the diet best 
adapted to him. The stomach commences to have 
an irresistible aptitude to form acid ; and this is 
increased by the use of fermented liquors. In some 
persons the paroxysms of gout occasionally "show 
themselves, though these are, from the more cautious 
habits of life, less common than they formerly were ; 
deposits in the urinary excretion are to be observed ; 
or indigestion, with its train of miserable symptoms ; 
or that still greater foe to human happiness, nerv- 
ousness, exhibited in a thousand various forms, 
will be present, unless there be a due attention to 
dietetic precepts. The early breakfast and the late 
dinner, without some light meal between them, is at 
this period highly objectionable, more particularly 
as the latter is too frequently a complete indulgence 
in all the richest viands and the stronger wines, 
whilst the stomach has been left empty for some 
period. There is in general too great carelessness as 
to the luncheon ; and the more active is the employ- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 123 

ment of the mind, the greater is the necessity for 
some support. The lighter it is, certainly the better ; 
for the loading the stomach with food in the midst 
of the occupation of the faculties is not desirable : 
but whilst the barrister sips his tea with toast or 
rusk, the merchant may take his glass of sherry 
with water, and the tradesman may enjoy his hearty 
meal. Magnesia added to the cup of tea in the 
middle of the day is the best antidote to the deve- 
lopment of acid, and prepares the digestive organs 
for the due performance of their functions. 

There are many persons who are perfectly sensible 
of all the agreeable qualities of black tea, and are 
in the daily habit of drinking it, who cannot take 
even a very small quantity of green tea. It seems 
to produce upon them the most distressing effects. 
On some individuals it acts almost as a narcotic 
poison, depressing the system in a very singular 
manner. Very shortly after they have drunk a cup 
prepared in the usual form, they experience a train 
of very distressing symptoms ; and though they sel- 
dom last long, or leave any permanent influence, 
still, whilst they are present, they are of a most 
striking character ; they recur each time the tea is 
taken ; nor will the stomach habituate itself to its 
use. It is to be observed that, notwithstanding the 
sensations that are thus produced, there are indivi- 
duals who persevere in its use, and even find some 
degree of pleasure in the first stage, or that of ex- 
citement which usually precedes the depression. 
The common signs attendant upon its disagreeing 
with the system are a distressing nausea, a sense of 



124? TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

constriction of the chest, and palpitation of the 
heart. The face becomes pale, the skin is cold, the 
pulse altered, both in frequency and in strength ; 
in some cases it is weak and slow, in others 
fluttering or intermitting : this state of depression 
of the circulating system occasionally becomes more 
alarming. The hands and feet are cold as marble, 
and bedewed with a clammy perspiration : violent 
pain in the head, giddiness, dimness of sight, inca- 
pability of using muscular action, and a sensation 
of suffocation, have been superadded to the other 
symptoms. In the worst instances that are on re- 
cord, the fluttering of the heart has been succeeded 
by a momentary^ suspension of its action ; and 
long-continued swoonings have occurred. These 
symptoms usually disappear without requiring any 
medical assistance ; for although the sufferings are 
evidently great, there is throughout them a constant 
effort of Nature to recover the lost equilibrium. As 
the stomach is the centre of sympathy, so is it the 
first organ to which the vis medicatrix applies itself 
in its moments of disordered action, and most strenu- 
ously does it exert itself to relieve. Some of those 
who are partial to green tea suffer much from its 
effects, and are often induced to take a stimulus 
which affords them a momentary pleasure, but is the 
source of much future misery. They complain, 
about two hours after indulging themselves in their 
green tea, of a sensation of sinking at the stomach, 
a craving, an emptiness, and a fluttering in the 
chest ; they feel this particularly after the morning 
meal ; they are rendered incapable of following any 
avocation ; they are miserable for the first hours of 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 125 

the day ; are feverish, irritable, and in a highly nerv- 
ous state. With a view of preventing these miser- 
able sensations, they add at first a small quantity of 
brandy, of rum, or of some spirituous liquor, and 
at last a large quantity ; this habit is gradually ac- 
quired ; it takes such full possession of the unfor- 
tunate person that it is not to be shaken off; and at 
last he gives way to the pernicious custom of dram- 
drinking, and the glass of brandy an hour after tea 
becomes indispensable to relieve the gnawing of the 
stomach. 

There have been many ingenious men and learned 
physicians who have been struck with the bad 
effects of tea upon particular persons ; and the 
annals of the science of medicine present us with 
many instances of such peculiar idiosyncrasies, upon 
which the leaves of the shrub act as a poison of the 
most deleterious character, though not proving 
actually fatal. Dr. Percival has narrated an inter- 
esting case of this kind in the first volume of The 
Dublin Hospital Reports, — acute spasmodic pain in 
the region of the stomach, a constant state of faint- 
ing, with slight fits of suffocation occurring every 
five or six minutes, were induced by green tea 
drank in some quantity before retiring to rest : 
these symptoms were relieved by two grains of 
opium and a glass of cold water; sleep followed 
this treatment ; but in about two hours it was again 
interrupted by the same state of agitation, which 
required the same means for its relief. In The 
Glasgow Medical Journal is to be found a case 
related by Dr. Lucas, of a female who was attacked 
with excruciating pain at the stomach, with a sens- 



126 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

ation of extreme distension. She exhibited some 
of the most striking symptoms that are usually at- 
tendant upon hysteria ; these were in a degree as 
extraordinary as they were alarming. She writhed 
as if suffering the most excruciating agony, 
uttering the most dreadful shrieks, and perspiring 
most profusely from the forehead. This state was 
relieved by the administration of large doses of 
opium. The paroxysms returned on a succeeding 
day, and demanded an enormous dose of opium for 
their alleviation — no less than six grains of solid 
opium and four drachms of the tincture were required 
before any sensible effect was produced. These 
attacks were the consequence of taking in the 
morning, before any other kind of meal, a large 
quantity of strong green tea, without the addition 
of either cream, milk, or sugar. Mr. Cole read 
before the London Medical Society a very inter- 
esting paper on the deleterious effects produced by 
tea and coffee in excessive quantities ; he detailed 
some very important cases, illustrative of his views. 
He narrated instances in which severe spasms, dis- 
turbance of the functions of the heart, pain and 
violent action of that organ, syncope, sudden attacks 
of insensibility, headach, and convulsions, had oc- 
curred. His essay excited considerable attention, 
and elicited a long discussion amongst the members 
of the society ; some of whom pointed out instances 
that had come under their own notice, in which 
green tea had been found productive of temporary 
ill consequences. The symptoms that show them- 
selves are apparently alarming, but they pass away 
almost as instantaneously as they present them- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 127 

selves. Of this class is a case narrated by Dr. 
Harvey. A medical gentleman knocked at his door, 
and requested permission to come into his house 
and die. He appeared in a state of the greatest 
alarm and agitation ; his pulse was scarcely percept- 
ible and extremely irregular : he felt confident that 
he was dying. Having stated that he had sat up the 
whole of the preceding night, taking nothing but 
green tea, a stimulant was given him, simply a glass 
of cherry brandy : he was put to bed ; he slept well 
for two hours, and awoke perfectly recovered. 

The ordinary effect of green tea taken late at 
night is incubus or night-mare in its most formid- 
able shape ; and many persons, who after a hearty 
dinner have taken green tea, wake in the midst of 
the night in a state of the most fearful agitation and 
excitement : the head is oppressed, a sensation of 
approaching death is felt, or sometimes the person 
seems to be dragged from the lowest abyss of dark- 
ness back to the world, from which during his 
paroxysm he had felt gradually to sink. Although 
none of these symptoms are permanent, and after 
they have passed away they are forgotten, yet a fre- 
quent recurrence of them must lay the foundation 
of mischief, and ultimately tend to the shortening 
the duration of life. Many individuals, who have 
to undergo fatigue, drink quantities of green tea as 
an antisoporific : certainly it has much power in this 
way ; indeed, it has been successfully employed as 
an auxiliary to resist the narcotic effects of opium, 
when it has been too largely taken; but, as the action 
is that of a sedative upon the heart and arteries, it is 
injurious, and coffee is much to be preferred, which 



128 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

produces arterial excitement, and thus influences 
the brain and nervous system, even to the produc- 
tion of exhilaration, which is rarely, if ever, the 
consequence of the employment of tea. 

In loss of muscular power dependent upon nerv- 
ous influence, as exhibited either in local or 
general palsy, or where the voluntary motions are 
irregularly or prematurely performed, as in St 
Vitus's dance, or in epilepsy, or wherever there 
may exist the slightest predisposition to them, tea is 
to be avoided; for, although the opinion that has 
been expressed by some authors, that this beverage 
has caused these diseases to arise, is erroneous, yet, 
where they are latent in the constitution, they may 
be brought into action from any debilitating cause ; 
and that which in a person in health produces little 
or no effect enfeebles him who is already weak ; 
and hence any watery drinks become sources of 
depression. Where the system has been debilitated 
by long and anxious watching, by excessive fatigue, 
by loss of blood, or any thing that has had a tend- 
ency to diminish the natural tone of the constitu- 
tion, tea must be exchanged for some more substan- 
tial beverage. Tissot has observed how injudicious 
is its use, or rather its abuse, after long literary 
labour ; and although the opinion of Dr. Johnson in 
favour of tea is so often quoted, who firmly believed 
that his power of resisting mental exhaustion was 
attributable to it ; still it is by no means a judicious 
habit to drink the large number of cups which have 
been greedily swallowed during intellectual em- 
ployment. 

Much has been said of the increase of nervous 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 129 

diseases in England, and this supposed increase has 
been attributed to indulgence in this beverage. 
Jonas Hanway published a series of letters against 
the use of tea and gin, which contain some of 
the bitterest anathemas against both of these be- 
verages that ever were penned by man : he ascribes 
almost every sorrow to which the human species is 
subject, to these fertile sources. Misery, poverty, 
suicide, and murder, he thinks, spring from them. 
The nervousness which he describes is, however, 
much less known than it was in his days ; and the 
state which Dr. Cheyne has described under the 
name of "the English malady," has been almost ban- 
ished from amongst us. That fearful malady of mind 
lasting for so many years, painted in such glowing 
language, is scarcely met with by the physician of 
the present day; and although he may meet with 
hypochondriasis in many most striking forms, he 
seldom observes it with all that melancholy train 
of harassment it once exhibited. 

Nervous disorders, though they still commit their 
ravages, have not undergone that increase which 
was threatened from the introduction of tea. 
Another disease which was foretold would be the 
scourge of the tea-drinkers has also diminished, 
both in frequency and in violence — the scurvy. 
A ridiculous experiment made by Dr. Hales, "on the 
thickest end of a small sucking-pig's tail," which 
was inserted into a cup of green tea, and thus 
scalded, is adduced by Hanway to show how 
hurtful the warm infusion of tea is to the stomach. 
Still nothing that has yet been written can either 
persuade the public that tea, properly taken, is 



130 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

decidedly injurious, or that the increase of disease 
is attributable to its general introduction. 

That tea is the most agreeable and the most 
salutary diluent that has yet been introduced into 
Europe, would appear from the general improve- 
ment that has followed upon its use ; and although 
many plants have been used as substitutes, none 
have so long maintained their character. The 
common sage, Salvia officinalis, the wild marjoram, 
Origanum vulgare, the Arctic bramble, Hubus Arc- 
ticus, the sloe-tree, Prunus spinosa, the goat- weed, 
Capraria biflora, Mexican goose-foot, Chenopodium 
ambrosioides,common speedwell, Veronica officinalis, 
wild germander, Veronica Chamcedrys, have been 
tried, but the most sanguine commenders of these 
herbs have soon become tired, and have abandoned 
their use. Chocolate has been found most service- 
able to the low-spirited, to those who are emaciated, 
to those who suffer from haemorrhoids ; and there 
are certain states in which coffee may be preferred, 
but that these and herbs, in the state of infusion 
and decoction, ought to be the sole drink of man, 
neither appears from the history of the past, nor a 
consideration of the adaptation of man for the 
various climates to which he is exposed, the labour 
he has to undergo, nor to the immense variety 
of food which necessity and habits of life have 
introduced. The vicissitudes of human existence, 
sometimes in a state of the utmost simplicity, 
at others of unbounded luxury, demand that 
aliment suitable to the general wants, as well as 
to each individual member, should be obtained; 
that fermented liquors, if injudiciously taken, pro- 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 131 

duce diseased stomachs and livers, consumption* 
dropsy, madness, is universally acknowledged ; and 
the prudent man, who fears that he may be betrayed 
into a single excess that may overpower his reason, 
is perfectly right in shunning the means of mis- 
chief. But good wine is a good cordial, a fine sto- 
machic, and taken at its proper season invigorates 
mind and body, and gives life an additional charm. 
There can be found no substitutes for the fer- 
mented liquors, that can enable man to sustain the 
mental and bodily labour which the artificial habits 
of society so constantly demand. Temperance and 
moderation are virtues essential to our happiness, 
but a total abstinence from the enjoyments which 
the bounteous hand of Nature has provided, is as 
unwise as it is ungrateful. If, on the one hand, 
disease and sorrow attend the abuse of alcoholic 
liquors, innocent gaiety, additional strength and 
power of mind, and an increased capability of 
encountering the ever-varying agitation of life, are 
amongst the many good results which spring from 
a well regulated diet, in which the alcoholic prepar- 
ations bear their just proportion and adaptation. 

Of the effect of the aroma issuing from tea, the 
following observations are to be found in Dr. 
Lettsom's work : — 

" An eminent tea-broker, (Mr. Marsh, he means,) 
after having examined in one day upwards of one 
hundred chests of tea, only by smelling at them 
forcibly, in order to distinguish their respective 
qualities, was the next day seized with giddiness, 
headach, universal spasms, and loss of speech and 
memory. By proper assistance the symptoms 
k 2 



132 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

abated, but he did not recover; for though his 
speech returned, and his memory in some degree, 
yet he continued, with unequal steps, .gradually 
losing strength, till a paralysis ensued, then a 
more general one, and at length he died. Whether 
this was owing to the effluvia of the tea may, per- 
haps, be doubted. Future accidents may possibly 
confirm the suspicion to be just or otherwise." 

Dr. Lettsom then relates, — " An assistant to a tea- 
broker had frequently, for some weeks, complained 
of pain and giddiness of his head, after examining 
and mixing different kinds of tea. The giddiness 
was sometimes so considerable, as to render it 
necessary for a person to attend him, in order to 
prevent any injury he might suffer from falling, or 
other accident. He was bled in the arm freely, 
but without permanent relief; his complaint re- 
turned as soon as he was exposed to his usual 
employment. At length he was advised to be 
electrified, and the shocks were directed through 
his head. The next day his pain was diminished, 
but the day after closed the tragical scene. I saw 
him a few hours before he died ; he was insensible ; 
the use of his limbs almost lost, and he sunk very 
suddenly into a fatal apoplexy. Whether the effluvia 
of the tea, or electricity, was the cause of this event, 
is doubtful. In either view, the case is worthy of 
attention." 

Dr. Thornton, however, says, in his Herbal, 
" In addition to the above, let me add the testi- 
monies of Mr. Venn and Mr. Wright, who are 
smellers and tasters to the East India Company of 
the teas which have been imported, and place 



AND MORAL EFFECTS, 133 

marks on each chest of tea, as good, very good, 
superlatively good, best, very best, extraordinary, 
fine, incomparable, the bloom, and so on, in degrees 
of comparison, which we grammarians are unac- 
quainted with, but which direct the purchase ; and 
these gentlemen have been employed upwards of 
forty years, sometimes in a morning tasting seventy 
cups, of all sorts, and after that smelling often from 
seven to eight hundred chests of tea; and these 
gentlemen never found any thing in teas at all pre- 
judicial to their health. The former asserts, that 
Dr. Lettsom's account of Mr. Marsh losing his life 
by smelling of teas is founded upon mistake ; and 
Dr. L. promised him to alter the mis-statement." 

At the first formation of Temperance Societies 
the total abandonment of spirituous liquors was 
not contemplated, their occasional use being per- 
mitted to their members ; their abuse only being 
strictly forbidden. It was in the United States, in 
the city of Boston, that, for the first time, a union 
was entered into, and those who formed it were as- 
sociated together by the common bond of sobriety ; 
but it was ten years later that, in the same city, 
many of the most influential inhabitants entered 
into a determination, which they most strictly ad- 
hered to themselves, of avoiding all fermented 
liquors, and of discountenancing their use in others. 
In 1828, two years after the first enrolment of the 
names of those who formed a society of this nature, 
there were no less than 220 similar institutions, 
comprising nearly 30,000 persons, all animated 
with one spirit, not that " of Bacchus and Mars, 
two of the most mischievous maniacs that ever 
K 3 



134 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

made their escape from Bedlam, but of Temper- 
ance and Sobriety." The effect upon the mortality 
of persons under the age of forty, was visible in 
the following year ; and wherever the system has 
been pursued, a decrease in the number of deaths 
has rapidly followed. In the year 1834, a central 
body was formed in Philadelphia, with associations 
in every town in the United States ; from the great 
body of the people, the determination quickly spread 
throughout the army and the navy. In 1832, 500 
vessels quitted the American ports without a supply 
of spirits on board ; and such was the feeling of 
increased safety to the vessels, that the underwriters 
lowered their rate of assurance, and that they were 
borne out in their estimate of diminished danger, 
was fully proved. It has been satisfactorily de- 
monstrated that vessels which were strictly upon 
the Temperance System, have made more prosperous 
and more rapid voyages than others. One fact is of 
the most extraordinary character, that 168 whaling 
vessels out of 186 employed, took not a drop of 
spirit on board ; and although they had to encounter 
the cold, the privations, the miseries of a north 
sea, they returned healthier, happier, and more 
successful, than did those who repudiated the opi- 
nions and the customs of this vast and prevailing 
sect. 

It is stated that in the year 1835, 4000 distil- 
leries were abandoned in America, and that 8000 
persons, who had previously obtained their livelihood 
by the sale of spirits, were compelled to discontinue 
their trade. The example of the people of the Uni- 
ted States was soon followed by those of other 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 135 

countries; and, to the honour of Ireland, the town 
of New Ross was the first place in Europe, in 
which a Temperance Society was established. Since 
that period, almost every large village in England 
has founded a similar institution. Tea has in most 
instances been substituted for fermented or spiritu- 
ous liquors, and the consequence has been a general 
improvement in the health and in the morals of a 
vast number of persons. The tone, the strength, 
and the vigour of the human body are increased by 
it; there is a greater capability of enduring fatigue; 
the mind is rendered more susceptible of the inno- 
cent pleasures of life, and of acquiring information. 
Whole classes of the community have been rendered 
sober, careful, and provident. The waste of time 
that followed upon intemperance, kept individuals 
poor, who are now thriving in the world, and ex- 
hibiting the results of honest industry. Men have 
become healthier, happier, and better for the ex- 
change they have made. They have given up a 
debasing habit for an innocent one. Individuals 
who were outcast, miserable, abandoned, have 
become independent, and a blessing to society. 
Their wives and children hail them on their return 
home from their daily labour with their prayers 
and fondest affections, instead of shunning their 
presence, fearful of some barbarity, or some out- 
rage against their better feelings. Cheerfulness 
and animation follow upon their slumbers, instead 
of the wretchedness and remorse which the waken- 
ing drunkard ever experiences. 

The beauty, the harmony, and the vigour of the 
human frame, are soon altered by intemperance; 
k 4< 



136 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

her fearful characters are legibly impressed upon 
the countenance, the figure, voice, and gait. The 
good complexion, the manly bearing, the air of 
sincerity, visible in him who is guided by well-dis- 
ciplined habits, strongly contrast with the down- 
cast look of the sensualist, with his listlessness, his 
sluggishness, his swollen and harsh features, his 
leprous skin : the bloated face, the purple nose, the 
blotched cheek, the blood-shot eye, the host of 
papulous and pustular eruptions, the loss of hair, 
the increased secretions from the mucous mem- 
branes of the nose, the faded and the haggard look, 
which bespeak the drunkard, may even harass 
him who does not actually intoxicate himself, 
but has daily potations beyond the limits of good 
sense. These are traits which are read by every 
eye ; but there are more minute characters, which 
reveal to the attentive observer truths which the 
art of dissimulation would in vain attempt to con- 
ceal ; there are miseries which are consequent upon 
drunkenness, which the physician has seen and 
known, which the drunkard doubts, or to which he 
turns a deaf ear. A physiognomist has said, — 
" Every face is a seal with truth engraved upon 
it;" it is indeed too often " a book where men may 
read strange matter." How often does it betray, not 
only the mischievous propensity, but the beverage 
to which the drunkard is attached ! The gin- 
drinker exhibits a sad picture : his haggard coun- 
tenance is of a leaden hue, "his forehead is gathered 
into premature and unsightly wrinkles, his eyes are 
dead, and lack lustre — they are anxious, restless, 
— they cannot meet the anxious look of their dearest 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 137 

friend ; the cheek is sallow ; emaciation, misery, 
are stampt visibly in every line. Brandy gives a 
fiery redness, a fierce turgescence to the cheek; 
every vessel of the face is loaded to repletion ; the 
eyes are blood-shot, they glare ferociously ; every 
look betokens that in a moment a paroxysm of 
violence, rage, or madness, may burst forth ; whilst 
he who besots himself with beer exhibits all the 
marks of idiocy : his face bears evident proofs of 
the ravages this beverage produces ; it has a 
yellow hue ; the cheeks are bloated ; the nose and 
the lips are purple ; the saliva streams from him*; 
the feebleness with which he lifts his arm to his 
mouth, to brush away with the' sleeve of his coat 
the accumulated froth, is a true indication of the 
sluggishness the liquor induces, which differs essen- 
tially from the increased energy and brutal violence 
of the brandy, or the paralytic motion of the gin- 
drinker. The lover of vinous potations has his 
red nose, his rosy eruptions on the face, his heavy 
eyes, his parched lips, and purple cheek, as evi- 
dence of his Bacchanalian joys. The gin and the 
wine drinker becomes " maudlin " in his cups ; him 
apoplexy threatens : and the individual who flies 
to brandy for relief, and becomes furious and vio- 
lent, may also thus terminate life suddenly ; whilst 
he who becomes depressed, anxious, and melan- 
choly, after the first stage of exhilaration is passed, 
will most probably be the victim of palsy. 

Dropsy, scirrhous liver, gall-stones, epilepsy, a 
tendency to mortification on the slightest wound, 
varicose veins, gout, indurations of the important 
organs which assist digestion, — all threaten misery 



138 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

to the intemperate, and should awaken him to the 
sad folly of being led, for a transient pleasure, to 
lasting agony and grief. 

One of the most frightful maladies consequent 
upon the abuse of vinous or spirituous drinks, is 
delirium tremens, which bears with it a melancholy 
train of symptoms which are close J y allied to some 
of the most aggravated forms of disease which the 
sad catalogue of human afflictions presents us with. 
Sometime previous to the development of this dis- 
order there are observed weakness, languor, ema- 
ciation ; there is no appetite for breakfast or for 
dinner ; there is a peculiar slowness of the pulse, 
coldness of the hands and feet, a cold moisture 
over the whole surface of the body, cramp in the 
muscles of the extremities, giddiness, nausea, vomit- 
ing. To these signs succeed a nervous tremor of 
the hands, and likewise of the tongue ; the spirits 
become dejected, a melancholy feeling pervades the 
mind ; the sleep is short and interrupted : this may 
constitute the first stage ; after which a second 
comes on, attended with the highest degree of 
nervous irritation, ending in mental alienation. 
Objects of the most frightful nature are present 
to the imagination ; the eye acquires a striking 
wildness; the person cannot lie down; he fan- 
cies he sees faces of extreme hideousness before 
him, beings enter into a conspiracy against him : 
sleep is altogether banished. This disorder some- 
times bursts forth after a debauch with tremendous 
violence, and in an unmanageable form ; it is some- 
times characterised by the exhibition of a furious 
delirium ; the eyes become ferrety, the perspiration 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 139 

enormous, and the want of sleep is almost painful 
to the attendant. Oftentimes the paroxysm is of a 
melancholy kind : the appearance of the sufferer is 
very striking from his total helplessness ; his in- 
coherence of ideas, and his refusal to drink, which 
produces almost as striking an effect as hydro- 
phobia, excite the utmost alarm. Death is some- 
times sudden. Dr. Pearson witnessed a distressing 
incident in a patient who, for a considerable time 
before his death, imagined he saw the devil at the 
ceiling above his bed ; and as the disease increased, 
he fancied the evil spirit approached him with a 
knife to cut his throat, and actually expired, making 
violent efforts to avoid the fatal instrument. 

That the best of men may soon be degraded into 
the most abject of creatures by that which, if mo- 
derately taken, dispels sorrow, invigorates the mind, 
and is a grateful cordial in pain and in disorder, 
all must allow ; and that, sooner or later, anguish 
and torment of the most frightful kind will afflict 
the body of the sensualist who indulges in habitual 
intoxication. During wine or spirit drinking, the 
lirst hint that the constitution gives, that it can 
receive no more with impunity, should immediately 
be taken. The kidneys, faithful to the brain and 
to the heart, secrete from the blood that which 
would be noxious to them. As soon as they com- 
mence their increased action, the prudent man 
discontinues his enjoyment, or he mixes his wine 
with a diluent : he has recourse to a cup of warm 
and grateful tea. Some individuals have their 
kidneys more instantaneously called into action 
than others ; and if it is from actual quantity of 



140 TEA; ITS MEDICINAL 

fluid, that relief by excretion is demanded, this in* 
dication that more wine is dangerous, should never 
be forgotten, and many miseries are obviated by 
attention to one of the most important channels 
which nature has destined to carry away that which 
is not useful to man's constitution. 

Although the abuse of wine and of fermented 
liquors is so dangerous to man, yet a moderate 
indulgence in these gifts of Providence is a source 
of happiness, of joy, and of health, to him. The 
rigid laws that have been so loudly proclaimed 
and widely disseminated, are not adapted to every 
stage of society, nor to every member of the great 
commonwealth. If, on the one hand, disease and 
affliction follow upon intemperance, additional 
strength and power of mind, and an increased capa- 
bility of encountering the ever-varying agitations 
of life, are among the many good results which 
spring from a well-regulated diet, in which beer, 
wine, and tea, bear their just proportions ; nor are 
the alcoholic fluids to be altogether banished, though 
they are most objectionable if often taken, and more 
especially in their undiluted state. 

In a climate of great vicissitude, where the win- 
ters are uncertain, moist, and foggy, in constitutions 
where mind and body are equally liable to depres- 
sion, something beyond a mere diluent, or even a 
nutritive, is required ; and it is better that the system 
should acquire a regular habit of daily taking a 
sufficient quantity for its support, than that there 
should be occasional fits of excitement by the sti- 
mulus of drink, and then a consequent depression. 
Nothing was more injurious to health, and was more 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 141 

productive of gout and of nervous disorders, than 
the system pursued by our immediate progenitors, 
in their early life. The wine was not daily placed 
upon the table, and three or four glasses taken at 
the dinner meal; but once or twice in the week, 
either at home or at the house of a friend, there 
was a dinner party, at which each person was accus- 
tomed, nay, sometimes obliged, to drink to intoxi- 
cation. The consequence was, that in a certain 
rank of life, every person was expected to be laid 
up by a fit of the gout, a disease which is much less 
known than it formerly was ; and those only who 
have it handed down as an hereditary disease suffer 
in the present day ; but the most abstemious person 
who has had it transmitted to him is more likely to 
have it developed if he do not drink with great re- 
gularity a small quantity of wine, for upon some 
accidental indulgence he will feel the ill conse- 
quences of his father's habits. A person who has 
abstained for months from wine has, from two glasses 
of champagne, suffered a paroxysm of gout, whilst 
he who has habituated himself to a regular glass of 
good wine escapes his enemy. When there is great 
activity of mind during the winter months there is 
a necessity for a stimulus, which is hurtful during 
the summer. The port, the sherry, the ale, so 
proper at Christmas, and the cup of tea quickly 
following it, must be exchanged, in summer, for the 
claret or hock, or for tea alone. The damp and 
uncertain states of the atmosphere of this country, 
independent of all other considerations, point out 
the necessity of obtaining an artificial bodily heat. 
The glow and animation that follow upon a proper 



14*2 TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL 

stimulus are serviceable to man, more particularly 
when they are excited late in the day, when the 
nervous energy is somewhat exhausted ; for the same 
quantity of fluid, if taken at the time of the day 
when it is not required, will impair the health, and 
prevent the mind from exertion. It is, therefore, 
to be remembered, that it is not indiscriminate wine 
or beer drinking that is to be recommended — it is as 
a regular systematic beverage at due intervals, and 
at proper times, that it is to be taken. It is not as 
a vicious indulgence, it is not as a weak propensity 
that it is to be sought ; but wine is to be considered 
as an agreeable stomachic, a necessary aliment, and 
a gentle stimulant to mental energy. The varieties 
of beer renovate the system, 'enable it to bear 
fatigue, are serviceable during moist and cold wea- 
ther, where impure air exists, where occupations 
are either laborious or unhealthy, and it is as an 
article of diet, and not of luxury, that beer is to be 
estimated. During excessive fatigue, it should be 
permitted as an unusual stimulant; and although 
the whale-fisher has denounced it even in his 
greatest exposures to the inclemencies and perils to 
which he is subject, it is to be remembered that, 
amongst the records of facts, we have the narrative 
of the sad state of the crew of the unfortunate men 
who, with Captain Bligh, had the most frightful 
privations and the most overpowering hardships 
to encounter, and their preservation was owing to 
the administration daily of a tea-spoonful of rum. 
As life advances, when the meridian is past, the 
vinous and fermented beverages prove a valuable 
cordial; they keep up the warmth of the circulation ; 



AND MORAL EFFECTS. 143 

they assist digestion, produce cheerfulness, enable 
the aged to partake of the pleasures of the young, 
recall the pleasures of the past,, and give to the ima- 
gination pictures of future happiness. 

A meal in the morning of tea and of simple food 
will enable man, with faculties unclouded, to pursue 
the varied walks of life, to receive or to give in- 
struction, to obtain that which he requires to make 
his home peaceful and prosperous : something light 
and nutritious is required to support his nervous 
energy during the hours of his occupation ; and at 
the close of the day, when his toils are over, he 
should take a repast of agreeable food, duly min- 
gled with wine and diluted by tea, to appease his 
appetite, to nourish his body, and to induce sleep. 
The precepts of life are temperance, sobriety, and 
chastity. These are best followed with regularity : 
tranquillity, a long existence, serenity of temper, 
and equanimity, are secured by them; and al- 
though the tea-drinker cannot know the transient 
excitement of intemperance, he is likewise ignorant 
of its fearful collapse; but let us use all things, 
as they were given to us, for moderate enjoyment, 
in this state of existence in which pleasure is to be 
derived from all by which we have most graciously 
been surrounded by our great Creator. 

It is not at all unlikely that, when English industry 
and knowledge are properly applied to the culti- 
vation and preparation of tea, there will be a uni- 
formity in different teas ; and, though they may not 
be superior to China, that there will be less mixture 
of bad and good teas together. The consumption 
must necessarily increase ; and, as Mr. Walker has 



144? TEA ; ITS MEDICINAL AND MORAL EFFECTS. 

observed, it is most likely that in the territories of 
the East India Company it would be prodigious. 
It is now used as a luxury and a medicine in cases 
of sickness there. The Hindoos live chiefly upon rice 
and flour ; their only drink is water ; if tea could 
be obtained by them at a moderate price, it would 
form a most refreshing addition to their domestic 
economy, as well as a salutary beverage in those 
fatal febrile affections to which the oppressive heat 
of the climate predisposes them. All that requires 
to be done is to prepare the herb in such a manner 
as to convince the people of England that it is not 
merely simple cultivation that has been attended 
to. Under the guidance of Mr. Bruce, every thing 
that good sense could suggest, and industry and 
attention supply, has been most rigidly enforced. 
The copy of papers received from India, relating 
to the measures adopted for introducing the cul- 
tivation of the tea-plant within the British posses- 
sions in India, which has been laid before the House 
of Commons, contains a mass of intelligence, which 
cannot fail to make an impression upon the public 
at home, that science and skill have alike been 
directed towards carrying into effect an establish- 
ment, which, from a combination of causes and 
occurrences, is at the present moment more likely 
to be beneficial to the empire than the most brilliant 
discovery, or the most splendid achievement. 

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Natural History — Philosophy, continued. 



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NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 



Natural History — Botany, cj-c. continued. 



BY SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH, M.D. F.R.S. 

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9 



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WORKS BY 

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ROBINSON'S GREEK and ENGLISH LEXICON 

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at-Law ; Author of " Familiar Exercises between an Attorney and his Articled 
Clerk." Foolscap 8vo. price 6s. cloth lettered. 

STEEL'S SHIP-MASTER'S ASSISTANT, AND 

OWNER'S MANUAL; containing General and Legal Information ne- 
cessary for Owners and Masters of Ships, Ship-Brokers, Pilots, and other 
Persons connected with the Merchant Service. New Edit, newly arranged, 
and corrected (containing the New Customs Laws, &c), by J. Sti ke.ua N, 
Custom-House Agent. With Tables of Weights, Measures, Monies, &c, by 
Dr. Kelly. One large and closely-printed vol. 21s. bds.; 22s. 6d. bd. 

CONVERSATIONS ON POLITICAL ECONO- 

MY. By Jane Marcet. 12mo. 6th Edition, 9s. bds. 
By the same Authoress, 

JOHN HOPKINS' NOTIONS ON POLITICAL 

ECONOMY. 12mo. 4s.6d. 

THE HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF BANK- 

1NG. By J. W. Gilbart. 4th Edit, enlarged, 8vo. 9s. 

*»* This book may be considered as a grammar of banking. The general 
reader may acquire from it a competent knowledge of most of the facts and 
principles connected with the subject. 

12 



NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 



MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE DELUGE ; vindicating 

the Scriptural Account from the Doubts which have recently been cast upon 
it by Geological Speculations. By the Rev. Leveson Vernon Harcourt. 

2vols.Svo. 3b"s. cloth lettered. 

" A work of much ingenuity in its design, and most elaborate research in its execution." 

British Critic. 

THE RURAL LIFE OF ENGLAND. By Wil- 

li am Ho witt. 2 vols, post 8vo. price 24s, cloth lettered. Beautifully em- 
bellished with Engravings on Wood by Samuel Williams. 

By the same Author, 

COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. A 

Popular History of the Treaiment of the Natives by the Europeans in all 
their Colonies. 1 vol. post 8vo. 10s. 6d. cloth lettered. 

THE BOY'S COUNTRY- BOOK : being the real 

Life of a Country Boy, written by Himself; exhibiting all the Amusements, 
Pleasures, and Pursuits of Children in the Country. By William Howitt, 
author of " The Rural Life of England," etc. Foolcap 8vo. with above 40 
Woodcuts by S. Williams, 8s. cloth. 

FEMALE IMPROVEMENT. By Mrs. John 

Sanuforo. Second Edition, 1 vol. foolscap 8vo. 7s. 6d. cloth lettered. 
By the same Authoress, 

WOMAN IN HER SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC 

CHARACTER. 5th Edit, foolscap 8vo. 6s. cloth. 

** We could wish to see these useful volumes in the hands of every young; lady on her 
leaving school. They would aid greatly in the formation of character, in correcting 
current mistakes of life, in invigorating the intellect, in refining and elevating the taste, 
and above all, in imparting a high tone of moral and religious sentiment to the mind." 

Evangelical Magazine. 

LACON; or, MANY THINGS IN FEW WORDS. 

By the Rev. C, C. Colton. New Edition, 8vo. 12s. cloth. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE EDINBURGH RE- 

VIEW. With a preliminary Dissertation, and Notes. Edited by Maurice 
Cross, Esq. 4 large vols. 3l. 3s. bds. 

LETTERS on the SUBJECT of the CATHOLICS, 

to my Brother Abraham, who lives in the Country. By Peter Plymley. 
Post 8vo. 21st Edition, 7s. cloth. 

THE HUGUENOT : A Tale of the French Protest- 

ants. By G. P. R. James, Esq., author of "The Robber,'' " The Gipsy,'' 
" Attila," &c. 3 vols, post 8vo. \l. lis. 6d. 

By the same Author, 

THE ROBBER: A Tale. 2d Edition, 3 vols. 

post 8vo. \l. lis. 6d. 

*• The best of Mr. James's romances."— Spectator. 

THE DOCTOR, &c. Vols. 1 to 5, 21. 12s. 6d. cloth. 

13 



MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. S LIST OF 



Miscellaneous Works — continued. 



ELEMENTS OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION; 

Comprehending the Rules of Thorough Bass, and the Theory of Tuning. By 
William Crotch, Mus. Doc, Professor of Music in the University of Ox- 
ford- 2d Edition, small 4to. with Plates, 12s. in cloth. 
*' This work contains as much assistance as any written source of instruction could pos- 
sibly convey. The whole is characterised by great simplicity and a profound acquaintance 
with music." — Monthly Review. 

By the same Author, 

LECTURES ON MUSIC. 7s. 6d. 

«* We regard this book as a very pleasant and popular work."— Westminster Review. 

THE STATESMAN. By Henry Taylor, Esq. 

author of " Philip Van Artevelde." Foolscap 8vo. 6s. 6d. bds. 

ARCHITECTURE, ROAD-MAKING, 8fc. 
DICTIONARY of the ARCHITECTURE AND 

ARCHEOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE AGES; including the Words used 
by Old and Modern Authors, &c. &c. By John Britton, F.S.A. &c. 
1 large vol. royal 8vo. illustrated by 41 Engravings by J, Le Keux, 2Z. 16s.: 
medium 4to. 51. ; imperial 4to. 7 1. 7s. 

T. F. HUNT'S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. 

Designs for Lodges, Gardeners' 
Houses, and oilier Buildings, in the 
Modern or Italian style. 4to. 21s. 
Exemplars of Tudor Architec- 
ture, Adapted to Modern Habita- 
tions. With illustrative Details, &c 
4to. 21. 2s. 
The above may be had with Proof Impressions of the Plates on India Paper. 

ENCYCLOPEDIA of COTTAGE, FARM, AND 

VILLA ARCHITECTURE AND FURNITURE. By J. C. Louuon, 
F.L.S. &c. New Edition, 1 large vol. 8vo., 1100 pages of Letter-press, and 
illustrated with upwards of 2000 Engravings, 32. boards. 

A TREATISE ON ROADS : wherein the Principles 

on which Roads should be made are explained and illustrated, by the Plans, 

Specifications, and Contracts, made use of by Thomas Telford, Esq. on the 

Holyhead Road. By the Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Parnell, Bart. Hon. Mem. 

Inst. Civ. Engin. London. 2d edit, greatly enlarged, with nine large Plates 

(two of which are new),2ls. cloth lettered. 

*' A work that should be not only in the hands of every person in any way connected with 

the highways of the kingdom, but also on the shelves of every public library as a standard 

book on a subject of useful and permanent interest."— Civil Engineer. 

'* By far the best volume that has ever appeared on the subject of Roads, and one which 
no country gentleman or land-steward ought to be without. 3 ' — Gardener's Mag. 

PRACTICAL TREATISE ON RAILROADS and 

INTERIOR COMMUNICATION IN GENERAL. Containing the Per- 
formances of the improved Locomotive Engines : with Tables of the Com- 
parative Cost of Conveyance on Canals, Railways, and Turnpike Roads. 
By Nicholas Wood, Colliery Viewer, Mem. Inst. Civ. Engin., &c. 3d 
Edition, very greatly enlarged, with 15 large Plates (several of which are 
new, and the rest have been re-drawn, and re-engraved), and several new 
Woodcuts, price \l. lis. Cd. in cloth. 
** We confidently recommend it to the continued favour of the profession, and especially 

to the notice of the engineering Student : his library indeed cannot be said to be complete 

without it."— Civil Engineer. 
il An excellent manual and volume of general reference for Engineers in this branch of 

their profession."— Monthly Chron. 

14 



Hints on Picturesque Domestic 
Architecture; in a Series of De- 
signs for Gate-Lodges, Gamekeepers' 
Cottages, &c. 4to. New Edit. 21s. 

Designs for Parsonage-Houses, 
Alms-Houses, &c. &c. 4to. 21s. 



NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 



WORKS OF GENERAL UTILITY. 



A POPTJLAE LAW DICTIONARY; with New 

Tables of Descent and Consanguinity. By T. E. Tomlins. 1 thick volume, 
of nearly 600 closely-printed pages, 8vo. 188. cloth lettered. 

" We have examined several subjects on which we happen to have some of the knowledge 
of experience, and the sharpness of interest; and in these we find the work full, tlear, and 
to the point." — Spectator. 

PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING WILLS 

in conformity with the New Act, which came into operation on the 1st of 
January. By J. C. Hudson, of the Legacy Duty Office, London. 7th Edit, 
fcp. 8vo. price Half-a-crown, neatly done up in cloth, gilt edges. 

By the same Author, 

THE EXECUTOR'S GUIDE. 2d Edit. fcap. 8vo. 

5s. cloth, gilt edges. 

"Mr. Hudson, who, from his situation in the Legacy-duty Office, must be familiarized with 
the various labours and duties of the executor and administrator, is evidently a sensible 
practical man, who does not write books by the square foot, but who seeks only, and we 
think successfully, to convey in plain and concise language his instructions * briefly and 
cheaply to the poor will-making or administering mortality .'"—Athenaeum. 

%* The above works may be had in one volume, price 7s. cloth lettered. 

SHORT WHIST ; ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND 

LAWS : together with Maxims for Beginners, and Observations to make 
any one a Whist Player. By Major A*****. 5th Edit. fcap. 8vo. with 
Frontispiece, 3s. in fancy cloth, gilt edges. 

"Avery lively well-written treatise."— Atlas . 

'* A smart and pleasant little book on a subject of grave import."— Spectator. 

** A very nice book on a game which has nearly superseded all others." — Lit.Gaz. 

THE TREASURY OF KNOWLEDGE, AND 

LIBRARY OF REFERENCE. By Samuel Maunder. In Two 
Parts : the 1st Part consisting of a new and enlarged English Dictionary, a 
Grammar, Tables of Verbal Distinctions, with Examples, &c. The 2d Part, 
including, among many oiher things of value, a new Universal Gazetteer, a 
Classical Dictionary, a Compendium of Chronology and History, a Dictionary 
of Law Terms, and various useful Tables. The whole uniquely surrounded by 
Moral Maxims and Proverbs. 9th Edition. 1 thick vol. royal ISmo. neatly 
printed in pearl, 8s. 6d» cloth; or I0s.6d. embossed and gilt. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 

By Lieut.-Col. P. Hawker. 8th Edition, greatly enlarged and thoroughly 
revised, with new Cuts of Heads of Wild and Tame Swans, all his last new 
Coast-Gear, with many other original subjects; and containing altogether 60 
Plates and Woodcuts. 1 vol. 8vo. One Guinea cloth lettered. 
** Col. Hawker's 'Instructions to Sportsmen ' is the very best book we have on the subject." 

Blackwood's Magazine. 

" From the extent and variety of its information, this work can be viewed in no other 
light than the critical observations of a veteran and scientific Sportsman. Experience has 
been his tutor, and practice his expounder, of all the arcana of his favourite hubby, which 
he rides with confidence, derived from actual warfare in the field of his labours. Though 
addressed to the young sportsmen, it must not be considered solely as the Mentor of the 
tyro; greybeards may learn wisdom jrom his rudiments ; and we do not scruple in addhig 
that the most experienced will pause at their ' old familiar doings.' "—Sporting Magazine. 

15 



